Synopses & Reviews
Review
"The stories in this collection are quiet and generous and amazingly powerful in their intimacy. Maclaverty's fiction draws out the magic hidden beneath the surface of simple lives with unexpected grace. A married couple visit the beach and without knowing they are looking for it, come to a sort of understanding. 'The thought of leaving Jimmy came into her head but it seemed so impossibly difficult, not part of any reality. Nothing bad enough had happened—or good enough to force her to examine the possibility seriously ... People stayed together because it was the best arrangement.' Maclaverty understands that real power lies in the threat of violence, not in the act of violence itself. As in 'The Silent Retreat,' when a boy studying to be a priest is threatened at the point of a gun by a prison guard, the strength of the story lies elsewhere, somewhere behind the silence of the unused gun. In the magnificent title story a man is kidnapped by IRA hitmen while out walking his dog at night. The encounter is so brief that 'He wouldn't even have been missed yet' but that time is tight with terror. The emotion in these stories is earned. 'The Wake House' carries the hush and pain of a funeral not in its sentiment but in its words. Maclaverty tells his stories with humor and understanding and with perfect
control. Each line in this collection seems to have a thousand reasons for being there." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Review
"Bernard MacLaverty's stories are at once beguiling and admonitory. You begin by being grateful for their upfront accuracy and end up in thrall to the truth behind them, their sense of proporation and sensitivity to pain." Seamus Heaney
Review
"These are stories which powerfully address an important theme: the poignance and fragility of private lives in the shadow of public events. They mark out the balance and imbalance the joy and defeat, the darkness of cruelty against the sweet ordinariness of life in vivid and witty writing which never loses its compassion." Eavan Boland
Review
"MacLaverty's deepest preoccupation is with the possibility of freedom for the people in his stories and for the writer of them. The possibility, although real, is elusive. The stories assert that reality, insinuate that elusiveness with admirable skill." Seamus Deane, editor of The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing
Review
"MacLaverty writers with an honesty that is irresistible. With his attention to everyday detail, nuances of speech and small, significant actions, he goes to the heart of his characters to produce something profound and quite unexpected." The London Evening Standard