The Days of Surprise - Hardcover

Durcan, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1846559715 ISBN 13: 9781846559716

Publisher: Harvill Secker, 2015

Synopsis

WINNER OF THE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IRISH BOOK AWARD 2014

Paul Durcan never imagined he would be clasped by a woman again, but life is full of surprises! After all, would it surprise you to learn that at the US Ambassador’s Residence in Dublin his libido almost destroyed the Peace Process? There is a new Pope, too, a ‘man of constant surprise’, although in St Peter’s Square Durcan encounters a monk wholly lacking in the Holy Spirit.

Elsewhere he muses upon the ‘pre-crucifixion scenario’ of being prepared for surgery, the gift of a malacca cane, the joy of retail therapy, the horror that is wheel-clamping, the ‘starry mystique’ of the weather forecaster Jean Byrne, suicide, bird-watching, stammering, art, Mayo, New York City, New Zealand, murder in Syria and the commemoration of 1916. Perhaps the greatest surprise is the voice of the late Seamus Heaney coming down his chimney: ‘Are you all right down there, Poet Durcan?’ The Days of Surprise is proof that the great poet of contemporary Ireland is in fine fettle.

About this title

Product Description:

Days of Surprise

Review:

"In The Days of Surprise the reader is continually, refreshingly, entertainingly, disturbingly surprised and, more importantly, nourished" (Niall MacMonagle Irish Independent)

"A new Durcan poetry book is always a joy. This one is no exception" (Mayo News)

"Scrupulously paced poems of the life, times and beliefs of this emotionally intense yet intellectually rewarding writer are inscribed touchstones" (Hayden Murphy Herald)

"To have heard him read adds another pleasure to the reading of his work – but the voice speaks clearly on the page in poems of harrowing intimacy, politics and love" (Carol Ann Duffy)

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvill Secker
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1846559715
• ISBN 13: 9781846559716
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176