The Sea and the Silence - Softcover

Cunningham, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1848400055 ISBN 13: 9781848400054

Publisher: New Island Books, 2008

Synopsis

Features the story of Iz, a young woman trapped in an unhappy, adulterous marriage, and how she is haunted by a great love in her past.

About this title

Review

“A terrific novel. Moving and hugely entertaining.” - Roddy Doyle

"The Sea and the Silence is a love story, and a war story, and it's beautifully told in that lilting, low-key style that syncopates the work of so many great Irish writers, such as William Trevor, John McGahern and John Banville: 'As I stared, by one of those miracles of light, the sea shone as if all the silver of the world was buried just beneath its surface.'

The last 20 or so pages will hold you especially spellbound. You can sense what's going to happen but not how — and that, come to think of it, is the way it is with life itself. The end is inescapable: All of us eventually die. But what we do before that moment — whom we love, how we live — is the subject of this brutal, luminous, unforgettable book.

You think of yourself as a moderately well-read person. And then you come across a book so brilliant, so moving, so enchanting, by an author you had not even heard of, and

"A terrific novel. Moving and hugely entertaining." - Roddy Doyle

"The Sea and the Silence is a love story, and a war story, and it's beautifully told in that lilting, low-key style that syncopates the work of so many great Irish writers, such as William Trevor, John McGahern and John Banville: 'As I stared, by one of those miracles of light, the sea shone as if all the silver of the world was buried just beneath its surface.'

The last 20 or so pages will hold you especially spellbound. You can sense what's going to happen but not how -- and that, come to think of it, is the way it is with life itself. The end is inescapable: All of us eventually die. But what we do before that moment -- whom we love, how we live -- is the subject of this brutal, luminous, unforgettable book.

You think of yourself as a moderately well-read person. And then you come across a book so brilliant, so moving, so enchanting, by an author you had not even heard of, and your world is henceforth altered. You feel a bit like John Keats when he came across a translation of Homer that knocked him out: 'Then felt I like some watcher of the skies / When a new planet swims into his ken.' "

-Julia Keller, The Chicago Tribune

About the Author

Peter Cunningham grew up in Waterford, the city on which Monument, the town in The Sea and the Silence, is based. His previous work includes a number of thrillers, written both under his own name and under pseudonyms. His novels include Who Trespass Against Us (London, 1993); The Monument Trilogy: Tapes of the River Delta (London, 1995); Consequences of the Heart (London, 1998); and Love in One Edition (London, 2001); and Taoiseach (London, 2004).

About this edition

• Publisher: New Island Books
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1848400055
• ISBN 13: 9781848400054
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 254