Dimensions
137 x 198 x 22mm
The acclaimed, award-winning essayist and memoirist returns to fiction with this reflective, bittersweet tale that introduces the irrepressible aging poet Thomas Murphy-a paean to the mystery, tragedy and wonder of life. Thomas Murphy, or "Murph," is an aging poet living in New York. Through Murph's wry, lyrical prose, we learn about his childhood on Inishmaan, an island off of Ireland, and his life since leaving Inishmaan in his twenties. We come to know his daughter, his grandson, his late wife, and his first love. Murph's mind jumps from fact to memory to fancy. Though Murph's mind is deteriorating, we see in him both the man he used to be and the man he is in his most lucid moments-and this lucidity, this awareness, makes this novel all the more heartbreaking. A man asks Murph to use his poetic skills to help him tell his blind wife that he's dying, and Murph reluctantly consents. After spending more and more time with this man's wife, Sarah, Murph begins to fall in love. When Sarah eventually reveals that she knows her husband isn't dying, but has merely fallen in love with another woman, Murph and Sarah begin to fall in love themselves. But as Murph's mental acuity declines, it becomes harder to distinguish fact from imagination. With humor and heart, Thomas Murphy asks, can our relationships save us? And is there any better reason to stay alive than love?
