The Lonely Witness

William Boyle is an exceptional writer of place and beautifully fully realised complex characterisation. If you are looking for a fast paced drama driven read, then this is not for you. This is set in the Gravesend neighbourhood of Brooklyn, a working class immigrant district of New York. Amy Falconetti has changed her persona after the break up of her relationship with Alessandra, who moved to LA for acting work. Not liking Gravesend, she nevertheless stayed, moving from hard living party girl to a conservatively dressed Eucharistic minister, administering communion to the local house bound elderly of the Catholic Church. She lives in a tiny dingy basement apartment living a minimal and minimised life, close to no-one, an abandoned, dislocated and lost soul lacking direction and identity. The elderly dementia suffering Mrs Epifano's caretaker Diane has sent her son, Vincent, to carry out her duties due to illness. However, Vincent frightens Mrs Epifano who asks Amy for help.

Amy impulsively decides to follow Vincent for no apparent reason, although the why becomes clearer when we learn how Amy as a child saw a neighbour commit murder, about which she said nothing but took to following him. She sees Vincent being murdered and commits a strange act at the scene. Amy cannot help getting further involved, her paranoia rising when she knows she can identify the killer. There are what seem to be insane, dangerous and opportunistic decisions driven by desperate dreams that lead to Amy's life spiraling out of control. She visits dive bars and restaurants, trying to re-inhabit her former life for it only to become clear that once again it does not fit. She is a person that life happens to, a lonely and alone witness, diminished, powerless, tending to lonely elderly parishioners, wanting to do good, but finding no room in her heart for forgiveness, lacking the capacity to connect to another human, fearing being hurt, abandoned and losing her tenuous grip on her poor sense of identity.

Boyle excels in his depiction of the neighbourhood, his eye for details is astonishing as he paints a gritty and vibrant portrait of a scarred place with its scarred people. He captures the sense of dislocation that Amy experiences with real skill, her efforts to make herself invisible, her discomfort with who she is, forced by life challenges to explore her identity further, to be more that a witness in life and murder. The character of Amy is multilayered, subtle and nuanced, framed within a set of circumstances that are testing of character, moral values and resilience. The themes of aloneness and the large circles of the lonely in a city is laid bare in Amy, the army of the elderly in the city, and the others, living with regrets, grief, loss and disconnection. A brilliantly engaging and immersive read that I recommend highly to others. Many thanks to Oldcastle Books for an ARC.