Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Meet 'Daft Matt', the Mayo man at the heart of this gorgeously written, form-bending tale. Matt, who has been told to get his head out of the clouds since he was a boy, has a hump the size of Nephin mountain from a lifetime of looking down.
We first meet him wandering the streets of Castlebar in search of 'Devil's feet' - the claw marks of the jackdaws who have spoken to him since he was a boy. He pretends not to hear the cruel remarks of those he passes, people who will never understand what's going on in his head because they don't take the trouble to ask.
In extraordinary prose, Walsh Donnelly imagines the inner life of Daft Matt, from the loss of his twin brother as a child, through the halcyon days of early manhood, to the shocking aftermath of a horse-riding accident that would leave him in care for another 30 years.
Synopsis
'I sit on the stone that will mark the bed of my bones. You'll find the used-to-be-me, soon, flat body, washed up, wrinkly skin. No silly grin. You'll say, What a waste of a life. Tut-tut sounds jump out. Dangle like worms from your crow's mouth ...'
Meet Daft Matt, the Mayo man at the heart of this astonishing, form-bending story, as he wanders the streets of Castlebar in search of Devil's feet - the claw marks of the c ga, or jackdaws, who have spoken to him since he was a boy.
Yet Matt is anything but daft. In lyrical prose, Walsh Donnelly explores the complex workings of Matt's inner life: how he deals with the loss of his twin brother as a child, navigates the carefree days of early manhood and copes with the aftermath of the horse-riding accident that would see him incarcerated in the care system for the next thirty years. Richly imagined and beautifully written, this is a story for anyone who chooses to look beyond the surface of things.
'I used to think those claws were the only things that kept me above sea-level.'