An exquisite winter tale of courage - and its cost, set in Catholic Ireland.
'Exquisite.' Damon Galgut
'Masterly.' The Times
'Miraculous.' Herald
'Astonishing.' Colm Toibin
'Stunning.' Sunday Independent
'Absolutely beautiful.' Douglas Stuart
A Book of the Year in The Times and The New Statesman
It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church.
'A genuine once-in-a-generation writer.' The Times
'[A] snowglobe of a story that fits a whole bustling, striving, yearning world into 114 finely wrought pages.' Sunday Times
'Powerful and affecting and very timely . . . deeply moving.' Hilary Mantel
'Stunning . . . A haunting, hopeful masterpiece.' Sinead Gleeson
'Remarkable . . . Truly exquisite.' Daily Telegraph
'A restrained and intensely moral book, full of hope and love.' Observer
'Marvellous - exact and icy and loving all at once.' Sarah Moss
