Noel O’Regan’s acutely-observed debut novel centres on Micheál Burns who lives alone except for his border collie Sammy. Micheál has returned to live in his former childhood home, an isolated bungalow originally his grandparents’ house, handed down to his parents, and finally to Micheál and his two sisters. Its surroundings are wild and beautiful, dotted with an array of glorious wildflowers, but it has a sinister history. It’s close by the cliffs of Ireland’s Kerry Head, a place that’s attracted generations of the desperate and suicidal. Over time Micheál’s mother took on the role of rescuer, attempting to persuade the cliffs’ ‘visitors’ to embrace life instead of death. Now Micheál in flight from his failed marriage, has returned to take up her cause, consumed by a sense of spiritual duty.

O’Regan’s strongly influenced by writers like Annie Proulx and John McGahern, fascinated by setting and atmosphere, ancestral legacies and generational trauma. His slow-moving, meticulously-detailed narrative is lyrical and carefully constructed. At its best this is a persuasive and moving depiction of family and community. Although I sometimes found the underlying scenario a little too contrived for my taste, and I’m not really the right kind of reader for O’Regan’s brand of introspective, literary fiction. But for those who enjoy the work of authors like Claire Keegan this is likely to be a far better fit.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Granta for an ARC

Another brilliant novel from yet another remarkably talented Irish writer – how does the country manage to keep producing these authors? No idea, but I’m glad they do. I loved this debut novel, finding it compassionate, tender and compelling. It tells the story of Micheal Burns who lives alone in his family’s house at the end of Kerry Head near some wind-swept cliffs that have become a suicide black spot. Micheal’s parents saw it as their duty to look out for potential suicides and make every effort to talk them down. After his father’s death, Micheal’s mother passes the burden on to him and this self-imposed duty shapes the rest of his life. A slow reveal puts Micheal’s life into context and explains why he has come to find this duty something he simply can’t escape from, even though at one stage of his life he did manage to break away for a while. Original and with an unusual theme, the issues surrounding suicide are sensitively dealt with and we can empathize with Micheal’s attempts to save the “visitors” who make their way to the headland in spite of the toll it takes on him. I found it a captivating and insightful read, quite haunting, with authentic characterisation and dialogue, stunning descriptions of the landscape, and a thoughtful and thought-provoking exploration of one man’s soul.

This was a really compelling read, beautifully written. My heart ached for Mick, the protagonist as he is forced to acknowledge how strong, possibly unbreakable are the ties to the landscape and the role he has inherited from his parents. Compassionate and original.

A book about the burden of duty.

Do you choose to live your own life? Or save the lives of countless others?
Does being bound by duty mean you're destined to give up your own life and dreams?
But where does duty come from? Are we chosen for a path or is it us that chooses this path? And what if the path is chosen for us?

This one took me a while to get through, the subject matter is quite heavy and I really just wasn't sure where the book was going until at least three quarters of the way in. I struggled with all the guilt and duty heaped onto the main character and found the pace too slow. There didn't seem to be any repreave from the negativity which made the book tiresome to read.


**Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for advanced access to this book. All opinions are my own.

In his debut novel, O’Regan tackles complex subjects such as depression, trauma and absence with quiet, powerful eloquence.

Micheál lives in his family’s cliffside bungalow in County Kerry, part of the Wild Atlantic Way and “like some tourist’s dream of a rural Irish cottage”.

It’s a beautiful landscape, alright, but for the bereft, these cliffs exert a powerful pull, and Micheál’s home is the last port of call before the headland, making it a suicide blackspot.

His grandparents initially had no idea of the headland’s reputation when they bought what became the family home in the early ‘70s. Micheál’s parents moved their family in when his grandmother could no longer look after herself.

Micheál’s parents felt it was their duty – spiritual and civic – to attempt to save these lost souls they referred to as ‘visitors’, but this took its toll on them and their community standing.

When Micheál’s father dies, his mother places this burden on her young son’s shoulders – an experience from which he never fully recovers, blighted by his driven mother‘s determination to help the ‘visitors’ while her own family suffered.

After he leaves for university, his sister Áine picks up the slack, determined to spare Saoirse, the youngest of the three. After a few brief years away, Micheál returned to the family land.

Now in his early 40s, Micheál contemplates past mistakes, avoiding all thoughts of the future. His sisters are keen to sell the land, but he is loath to relinquish the place he feels tethered to, even if it offers him cold comfort. He spends his time bird-watching and recording passing ships – the irony is they move on while he remains stuck - ever alert for more ‘visitors’ to minister. His only companion is his dog, Sammy.

Weaving between two timelines, Though the Bodies Fall is a sure but steady exploration of ordinary lives splintered by extraordinary circumstances. O’Regan uses unfussy prose to create an evocative sense of place, depicting Micheál’s sense of duty, guilt and increasing self-neglect with unflinching brutal honesty.

O’Regan is one to watch; I’ll be picking up whatever he writes next. 4.5⭐️

This was one of my most anticipated reads. I had come across this book a few times and the cover honestly is what drew me. Firstly, what a unique concept for a book! Secondly, apart from the curse words, I so appreciated how this book was not at all gratuitous or explicit, which is stupendously surprisingly for a modern book. I hope the author's future work is the same.

Despite me liking this book, there's a heavy amount of constructive criticism in this review, mainly due to the potential I feel the novel had, like a mom to her child.

The mood, pathos and imagery are brilliant. I'm a massive lover of sea themes. However, I believe the emotional depth in the characters did not match. For such an intense subject matter, there was little intrusiveness in the visitors' emotions or Micheal's feelings towards them. There was a lot of impact shown as a result of the visitors, but the story had little to offer when it came to Micheal's ostensible inner damage. The reading experience would've been richer if the story nagged and tugged at my heart strings more.

I liked Aine's and Micheal's rivalry though. That was interesting yet I'd have preferred it fleshed out. But, at the same time, I admire the author's discipline here. Especially for a debut author, he wasn't bringing in subplots left, right and centre. He had a story to tell and that's all he set out to do, even if that meant to sidestep this throbbing subplot of the siblings' rivalry.

The 2023 Booker judges must have overlooked this novel because it's Irish and features a dead mother.

Seriously, it is a good book about a young man unable to leave his family home atop the cliffs of the Irish West Coast even after his parents have died and sisters long left. The reason he can't leave are the 'visitors' that tend to seek out these parts to commit suicide. Micheál regards it as his duty to offer help, try and talk them out of it. But it gradually becomes clear there are other reasons as well.

I don't know how Ireland has so many good novelists...

The book description doesn't really cover the content. I found it far more interesting than I thought actually. So yes, it's about suicide. Bur it's also very much about family relations and love, and perhaps most of all about a sense of duty that Micheal feels and that shapes the life he ends up living.
Another interesting Irish novel! Please keep them coming :-)
Thank you Granta and Netgalley for the ARC.

I am a sucker for a beautiful book cover and this is what attracted me to this story. The fact that this novel is a dark, brooding Irish tale simply confirmed this was for me as it suited my mood.

Micheál/Mick lives in an isolated cottage on a cliff of the Irish coast, a favoured suicide spot for those seeking to end their lives. Mick, like his parents before him, take on the responsibility for these souls hoping to save them from their chosen fate by being there to listen, give support with food/lodgings and talk through their troubles. Some succeed, some don't, all leave a mark. This is the heavy burden Mick carries as we learn of his earlier years, as a boy, a younger man in love away from this place, and in parallel with the current day and his sisters' desire for him to agree to sell the property.

The reader cannot help but feel great sympathy for Mick who has an obsessive need to save these lost souls. It is exhausting and isolating for him. A beautiful story, packed full of emotional baggage that will stay with the reader. As the story progressed I worried for the direction it might take. I appreciate the decision of the author to leave the ending open in a way that can be interpreted a number of ways. A rich tale full of childhood and adult concerns, I am touched by the impression Though the Bodies Fall left on me.

This strangely captivating and melancholic debut novel about a dysfunctional family who for three generations have lived beside a popular suicide spot in Kerry had me hooked from the first chapter. There's a dark ambiguity to Though the Bodies Fall and something so powerful in the way Noel O'Regan questions what exactly our motivations are when we help others - is it ever really altruistic or just a way of giving purpose to our own lives? I loved too the underlying question of whether a landscape is imbued with the feelings and intentions of those who walk upon it, or whether we're intrinsically defined by the nature of landscape we inhabit. It's a thought-provoking yet intimate story that stayed with me long after I'd finished reading.

This was a really interesting premise and was thought-provoking in how suicide raises issues of responsibility and guilt for the living. The bonds between Michael's family were well fleshed out and believable. The nature writing and sense of place were vivid and beautifully written. The narrative strand needed to slow down a little for me though, it tripped along a little even when dealing with intense emotion and deep issues which left me feeling a little disconnected and not really invested. A great debut though and an interesting read.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

A solid debut.

Micheál lives in a lonely house on the top of a hill by the sea. He has since he was young. The cliffs are where people go to end their life. Though the Bodies Fall considers what it might be like to grow up there, how it impacts your relationships, your life.

I enjoyed the story unfolding across two timelines (now and flashbacks), it kept me engrossed in finding out the what and why of the novel.

What I struggle with is the perception of Micheál’s motivations within the world of the novel. While trying to remain a spoiler free review, I’ll just say that I didn’t fully buy it and it felt a little simple for an otherwise thoughtful novel.

Nonetheless, I would recommend this book if:
- You are a fan of an introspective and melancholic tale,
- You gravitate towards stories about intergenerational trauma,
- You’ve been thinking about what our obligations are to society.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really really loved this book. It follows Michael who becomes the guardian of his family home, on the edge of a cliff at a well known suicide spot, trying to stop these ‘visitors’. The role is handed down to him from his parents, and as the novel progresses and the time line jumps back and forth from present day to Michaels childhood, we learn more about the familial relationships and dysfunction. A great read.

When Micheàl's grandparents bought their house on Kerry Head at a steal, they were unaware that their land at the top of the cliff was a notorious suicide spot. Micheàl's grandparents, then parents, then Micheàl himself fell into the role of doing god's work and saving the souls of, and providing respite for, the regular 'visitors' as Micheàl's mother refers to to them.

The novel skips and jumps between Micheàl's childhood and present day, living alone and single in the family home. As the novel unfurls, you get more insight into the generations of this dysfunctional family, his mother's devotion to God's work and Micheàl's own conflict between the duty he has been born into and his wish to free. I'm pretty sure there was something going on with the numbering of chapters Roman numerals to denote historic events and numeric digits for present day (there may be more to it than that as I only noticed towards the end of the book).

This was an absolute belter of a novel. Many of my favourite books the last couple of years have been written by Irish authors and this will definitely be in my best books of 2023 list. An absolutely magnificent debut!

When kindness turns cruel

What a strange, melancholic and tender piece of writing this is. Here is the story of a dysfunctional family, and particularly of one member of it, Michaél Burns The family dysfunction is an excess of kindness, a compulsion to save souls. This had started when Michaél’s grandparents moved to a remote house on a clifftop edge at Kerryhead. The high cliff edge offered a kind of magnet to those deeply troubled, unable to go on, and the way to end all suffering.

Michael’s grandparents took on the role, unwillingly, of being guardian angels to suffering souls, but this was made a mission by his mother.

In a completely different kind of book, a completely different approach, Dickens’ Bleak House caricatures a similar kind of woman, dedicated to saving ‘unfortunates’ Mrs Jellyby devotes all her care and attention to setting up missions in Africa. Her philanthropy neglects her own children. She is one of Dickens’ wonderful comedic characters.

O’ Regan’s approach does not caricature, but searingly engages with the concepts of duty, guilt and service coming from a place of dysfunction.

We slip back and forth through timelines. There is the long past, when both of the parents were alive, and
Michaél and his two younger sisters, Aine and Saoirse were little. Other timelines explore how as the children became a little older – but still, far too young for such a venture, their mother inculcated guilt, duty, service, self-denial and a pathological need to be the rescuer into her children.

Now, Michaél is a middle-aged man, living alone in the house, apart from his dog, Sammy. The building is neglected, Michaél neglects himself, barely able to sleep, or to leave the house, so obsessive is the compulsion to keep alert for any troubled souls planning on suicide. The portrait of Christ, ‘the blood-lit portrait on the wall’ is the lurid reminder of his Christian duty and family mission.

This is a beautifully written, skilful book, gently drawing the reader in to its revelations. Evocation of place, is exceptional. I will certainly keep my eye out for O’Regan. A wonderful first novel.

4.5 stars

I admit that I initially thought it was the premise of the story that drew me to it. However, after reading it, I can confess that it was the cover. The cover has a house located precipitously close to a massive cliff of which the edges from the profile of a face. It’s ominous. And that’s what sold me.

I can now confirm for anyone who is curious about this story that is indeed ominous. It’s a dark and—at times—bleak look at a young man’s life as he becomes a guard who works 24/7 to ensure that no one dies by falling off the cliff beside his family home whether on purpose or not.

Initially, Micheál Burns’ parents diligently watch over their property for people whom they call ‘visitors’. However, eventually Micheál becomes the next in line to inherit the task—his mother’s decision—even though Micheál secretly wants the job: partly to annoy his sister, partly because he’s a curious young boy (Yes, he takes on the guardian position at a young age), and partly because there is the desire in him to play an important role in someone’s life…Or many peoples’ lives.

Micheál and his mother’s decision has long-lasting consequences and wrecks havoc on every relationship that Micheál has. As his sister’s push him to agree to selling the land after their mother has passed away, Micheál must contend with the warped beliefs he has about himself, his mother, and his purpose in life.

The story is told in dual timelines: the past and present until the past timeline catches up to the present and readers have fully gained insight into Micheál’s history and those whom he has loved and lost until, by the end of the story, he is alone…Except for his loyal dog, Sammy. It’s a slow-moving, psychologically twisted look at mother-child relationships, hero complexes, and questions about why we feel that death is the only escape. What readers are treated to is a emotionally-charged look at one man’s journey to discovery about what it truly means to live for others.

If you’re a fan of Irish literature, reading about the complexities of human nature, slow-burns, or psychologically dark fiction, then this is for you! I have to say that I’m really looking forward to reading what Noel O’Regan publishes next!

Many thanks to Granta Publications and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of Noel O’Regan’s Though the Bodies Fall. It was a fantastic story!

“His help was not a cure but a cheap, poorly applied plaster, ready to fall off at the first bit of friction”

Michael Burns lives in a scenic country house at the edge of a cliff in Kerryhead, Ireland. His childhood home boasts unimaginable views of the Irish Sea, wildflowers, rolling fields and wildlife. However, this home has a dark secret. For many generations these cliff edges have been a suicide black spot, those who Michael and his family call ‘visitors’. Growing up, Michaels mother saw the saving of these lost souls as an act of spiritual duty, constantly on watch day and night incase a visitor arrived. Rain or shine and in the middle of the night, her duty was to help these visitors make the decision not to end their lives.

As time rolls on, Michaels mother passed away and the duty is now on Michael to shoulder this duty and continue her work. However Michaels life is not as full as his mothers. With no relationship, close friendship or family of his own, it’s clear to see that this duty has an indescribable impact on his life.

Written over two timelines, present day and Michael childhood. This is an incredible debut novel by Noel O’Regan. Such a profound book, written so beautiful that you can almost smell, hear and feel the Irish air and countryside coming off the pages. Even after finishing this book the characters and story will stay in your mind provoking thoughts for days after.

This book left me with so many important questions and deep feelings. Most significantly - at what point do you have to realise that if you spend all your time prioritising the well-being of others around you when do you have time to focus on yourself and look after your own health. If you don’t look after yourself, how can you look after others around you?

Absolutely wonderful debut by Noel O’Regan. Definitely one of my favourite books ever read.

A debut novel that leaves you questioning so many things. As with all novels by Irish writers the sense of place comes through so clearly. You can see the waves, the cliffs, the birds; you can hear the silence and the birdsong. Michael, our narrator, tells his story in two timelines - the present and as a child growing up. As a child he grew up in a house in Kerry Head, a house he has now returned to as an adult. The setting is beautiful but the area has a darker history - it is a well known suicide spot. His parents would try to help these 'visitors' as they always referred to them, they would go to them and try to talk them away from the cliff edge, they would try to save their souls. When his father dies, his mother gets twelve year old Michael to help her - something that has an emotional impact on him that he carries with him. As an adult he is now alone in the house, constantly watching out for the 'visitors'. However, his sisters now want to sell the house that almost ruined their lives because their mother seemed to always put the 'visitors' before them. It is only through flashbacks in his memory, a reunion with one of his sisters that Michael comes to realise the damage that not only his departure as a young man, but their mothers actions did to his sisters. What came through for me was an exploration of the cost of putting others before ourselves, our families. How can we be of service to others is we are broken ourselves. A super debut.

This is a beautiful book. Sad and atmospheric and moving, with characters who feel real against a backdrop that is almost cinematic. Trauma, grief, memory and loss are all explored, punctuated with dialogue and turns of phrase that raise a genuine smile. I loved reading this and was sad when I realised I was nearly at the end!

Very emotional and moving book set in stunning Kerry .It is a very poignant story about Michael's parents helping so many troubled and suicidal people that have literally turned up with various tragic stories over the years ,and them helping to stop them from doing something irreversible.