'Gerard McQuaid has been waiting for his start in life: his house, his girl, his land. And with rural Ireland being swept up by the Celtic Tiger and villages becoming towns, the electrician's moment has finally arrived.
'With the chance to run a big job, McQuaid finds himself on Birchview Manor, a decrepit estate where the dreams of modern Ireland crash up against the weight of history. As McQuaid gets further into the restoration, he falls deeper into the story of the estate's previous owner, Lord Henry Lefoyle, whose fate begins to loom ghost-like over McQuaid's own.
'In this electrifying debut from a bold new Irish voice, John Connell deftly treads the footsteps of one ordinary man's rise and fall through the boom and bust of contemporary Ireland, weaving past and present together in a beautiful and devastating journey.' (Publication summary)
Dedication: For my lovely Faryl
And for Bill Small with greatest affection.
Epigraph:
Public: It's all over.
Private: And it's all about to begin. It's all over
Public: And it's all about to begin.
–Philadelphia, Here I Come! Brian Friel
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey.
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.
–'The Deserted Village', Oliver Goldsmith
