The Long Falling - Softcover

Ridgway, Keith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571216498 ISBN 13: 9780571216499

Publisher: Faber and Faber, 2004

Synopsis

Winner of the Prix Femina Etranger and the Premier Roman Etranger awards for literature.

A nightmare marriage; a cold, rural community; a tragedy in the past for which she is blamed - these are the fetters of Grace Quinn's life. But then, with an act of violence and despair, she attempts her escape.

The world into which she flees is that of her son, Martin - the confident urban world of a Dublin on the up. But Dublin, and the whole country, is about to be shaken out of its complacent glide into modernity, and Martin - product of the old Ireland, resident of the new - is about to learn that one cannot be separated from the other.

A story of city and country, past and present, acceptance and intolerance, death and what comes after, The Long Falling is, above all, the story of Grace Quinn and her challenge to the contradictions of Ireland at the end of the twentieth century.

About this title

Synopsis

Grace Quinn is an Englishwoman who has lived in rural Ireland all her adult life but is still a stranger. Haunted by the death of one son, for which her brutal husband blames her, and by the absence of another, Martin, Grace makes a decision which she hopes will alter everything. It breaks her world into pieces, and leads her into another - the city, Martin's world. The nightmare which follows draws Grace towards a place less sure, slowly filling her with hope and dread. A brilliant portrayal of of a woman on the edge, a touching portrait of a mother and son, an examination of the nature of longing and belonging, notions of foreignness and what constitutes being a foreigner, The Long Falling is a powerful and haunting novel.

About the Author

Keith Ridgway was born in 1965 in Dublin. His novella Horses first appeared in Faber First Fictions in 1997 and was followed in 1998 by his critically acclaimed first novel The Long Falling, which has since been awarded both the prestigious Prix Femina Etranger and Premier Roman Etranger in France. His stories have appeared in various anthologies in Ireland, Britain and the United States. His collection of stories, Standard Time, won the Rooney Prize in 2001. His most recent novel, The Parts, was published by Faber in 2003. He lives in London.Find out more by visiting Keith's website here.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber and Faber
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0571216498
• ISBN 13: 9780571216499
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320