When All is Said

A beautiful story told with lyric simplicity
Maurice Hannigan, eighty-four years old, sits in a bar in a small Irish hotel and makes five toasts. These toasts are to the five people he loved the most and meant the most to him in his lifetime. As each of the five stories behind the toasts is recounted, the character and life of Maurice Hannigan are gradually revealed until we have the whole picture of a complex and difficult man who has been damaged by his past, but who ultimately finds love and resolution. He has had a lifetime of suffering, hardship, pain and anger, but this has been mixed with joys, happiness, success and love. Although there is a little action, this book is also a page-turner as each of the five characters links into the next.
This is a very Irish story, it couldn’t really come from anywhere else especially with some of the dialogue. The writing is assured, poetic and fluent. Maurice, the main character, is beautifully drawn - warts and all - and although he dominates the story, the details of the other characters are also brought to life in great detail. When all the strands of the story have been brought together, the end when it comes is not entirely unexpected, but very movingly written.
I loved this gentle and beautiful book and found it hard to believe it is a debut novel. I cannot recommend it too highly.
Jane
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

How I loved this book! Without a sgadow of a doubt my favourite one this year. A book-length monologue, delivered by an 84-year-old Irish farmer in a hotel bar and addressed to his absent son...hmm, I hear you having doubts. But the voice of Maurice Hannigan, raising a toast to each of the five people that shaped his life, this candid laying-open of all the wrinkles of his years captivated me as no other story has done for a long time. A most powerful tale of hidden feelings, revenge, love, grief and determination. And no doubt it will linger long after having finished this book.

Anyone who has read John McGahern or Bernard McLaverty will just LOVE this. The characters are both stereotypical but totally engaging. We have met these folk before on the pages of a dozen great books about Ireland. I could smell the place it was so sharply drawn. Our main character is a man of the land and an unremarkable man at that. The story is like a fairy tale in its imagery and simplicity but you will NOT want to put it down. The cruelty of society and the dominance of one class over another just a few short years ago is stark and shocking. Sadness leaps from every chapter but the iron will of our hero overcomes all that.. I felt part of the story as an onlooker rather than a reader and that is RARE. And even when the end is signposted it comes as both a surprise but logical conclusion. The tissues were out for our heroes stoicism, love and pragmatism. He could have lived 300 years ago and still told this story. The most moving and wonderful book I have read in 2018. I wish I could start again. Someone with a heart will make a great movie out of this and an Oscar beckons for the actor who can conquer the part of Maurice.

What a refreshing different book. No twists to predict , no bloody hand fisted action just there to shock, no big 'reveals' , no crescendo finish, just a beautifully told story. The narrative is fluent, poetic. The scenes vividly recreated. The characters jump off the page. Though the ending is somewhat predictable, it's in a good way, it seems the only fitting end, not a disappointing one. As a debut, it was assured and well written. It is a gem of a book whose characters will live in my memory for a very long time

What a totally gorgeous read, I loved it, Maurice is a wonderful character and his stories are beautiful to read, I'm a little upset I've finished, he's going to stay with me for a while I reckon.

Beautiful. A poignant lament to a life less well lived than it might have been, where you're left grieving for the man who is and the boy who was.

I remained glued to this story even as I realised what was the inevitable conclusion, because the writing is so beautiful and the story so real.

Despite our hero's obvious flaws, he is a man I soon grew to like and to empathise with in all his decisions, good or bad. He's a man like any other, faced with hardships and with opportunities and there's no judgement required, he does enough of that for himself.

There's no growing crescendo here, no big reveals or mysteries to solve, it's simple walk through the life of a man we could all of us know. Hardworking, taciturn, filled with love and, now, regret.

Loved it.