The Book of the Gaels
by James Yorkston
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Pub Date 1 Nov 2022 | Archive Date 28 Sep 2022
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Description
Rural West Cork, Ireland. Two Kids, Joseph and Paul, and their struggling, poet father, Fraser, are battling grief and poverty. When a letter arrives with a summons to Dublin and the promise of publication, it offers a chink of light – the hope of rescue. But Dublin is a long, wet and hungry way from West Cork in the mid-70s, especially when they have no money - just the clothes they stand up in and an old, battered suitcase.
So begins an almost anti-roadtrip of flipsides and contradictions – dreams and nightmares, promises and disappointments, generosity and meanness, unconditional love and shocking neglect.
In simple, beautiful, lyrical prose, James Yorkston's new novel takes us on that trip, as seen through the eyes of a brave and resourceful but poor and frightened child. It tells of the emptying, paralyzing pain of grief and loss, tempered only by the hope of rescue and the redemption of parental love. It also tells of Fraser's love for his children's dead mother, as hidden within the battered suitcase is Fraser's heart-breaking collection of poems - The Book of the Gaels.
Advance Praise
'James is a brilliant writer, he never fails to deliver something unique. I love this book, it's lonely, funny and reassuringly dark...' - Sam Heughan
'I absolutely love this book. A brilliant evocation of a child's view of the world. The story flows effortlessly, the poems are good and it made me laugh quite a lot too. Bravo. Early in the book the child protagonist writes 'I remembered it so it must be important'. This kind of remembering is important: to remember what it is to be a child, to remember how strange the adult world seems at that age, to remember what poetry is for, to remember what it means to be hungry (in more than one sense of the word). An unsentimental and unflinching miracle of remembrance. The ending really had me 'on the edge of my seat" as they say. Get it read!' - Jarvis Cocker
'Funny, gripping and tragic, The Book of Gaels follows a penniless poet and his young sons on a manic journey across an unforgiving Ireland of the 1970s. The father's quest to see his grief-filled poems in print becomes a meditation on loss and then a desperate fight for survival. With each newly trial and setback, your heart goes out to the little family, willing them to find a place where they can at last thrive. It's a moving story that can't fail to live on in your mind' - Carolyn Kirby, author of When We Fall
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780857305183 |
| PRICE | US$16.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 320 |
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