"In this wrenching what-if exercise, Irish author Park (Oranges from Spain) invents a fictional truth and reconciliation commission (modeled on South Africa's real one) that aims to heal Northern Ireland's troubled past. Three men, all called to testify, have held close the truth about 15-year-old Catholic lad Connor Walshe's disappearance in 1990, after he was found to be a hapless informer against the IRA. Fifteen years later, former IRA leader Francis Gilroy is now the minister of children and culture; former Royal Ulster Constabulary officer James Fenton, who recruited Connor, is a restlessly retired 'inconvenient legacy of the past'; and Michael Madden, then an 18-year-old IRA runner, has been brought back from America to recount his role in Connor's fate. Overseeing the hearings is Henry Stanfield, burdened by the unleashed emotions and uncomfortably estranged from his pregnant daughter, who is a friend of Connor's sister. Park's soulful story about buried secrets, tangled lies and manipulated memories may be a little abstract for readers who didn't follow the Troubles, but this powerful fiction both humanizes and universalizes the civil war that gripped Ireland for so long." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

“Beautifully written, always thoughtful, and readers of serious fiction will find that it remains with them long after they have set the book aside.”   Lincoln Journal Star

“With guile and wonderful imaginative sympathy, Park stays afloat on the most treacherous of thematic currents: the inhumanity of violence, the vulnerability of the individual before history, truth's inextricability from power, the elusive nature of redemption....The central attribute of the writing — and it's one of the things that make this novel of Ireland of more than parochial interest — is its conscientiousness. We're reminded that with writers like David Park, the novel can itself be a kind of truth commission.”New York Times Book Review

“Powerful...Park humanizes all the participants but never backs away from the dark crime at the heart of the narrativehis dispassionate recounting of Connors ordeal at the hands of the IRA is both chilling and heartbreaking.”Booklist (starred)

“Forceful, lyrical, and elegantly written.”Library Journal

“Park chillingly and entertainingly envisions the entanglements of a South African–style Truth and Reconciliation tribunal in post-Troubles Belfast...the novel is fast-paced and chilling, a pleasing hybrid of literary fiction and political thriller...Intricately constructed and powerful.”Kirkus Reviews

“Wrenching…soulful...this powerful fiction both humanizes and universalizes the civil war that gripped Ireland for so long.”Publishers WeeklyPraise for The Big Snow:

“David Park…is a writer of consequence, lyrical, precise, comic, and serious.”Boston Globe

“A taut, riveting urban murder-mystery. Park is a superb writer.”Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A closely observed tale of how transfigured landscapes and familiar yearnings converge…absorbing.” Washington Post

“Lyric eloquence…A moving and unusual novel filled with unexpected encounters and unpredictable outcomes.”Orlando Sentinel