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This compelling literary novel about hidden family secrets takes readers on a patient journey of discovery. It is a haunting debut set in the harsh, beautiful landscape of Irelands north coast that will appeal to readers of Colm Toibín and John McGahern.

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A haunting debut set in the harsh, beautiful landscape of Ireland´s north coast.

Patrick Jackson lies on his deathbed in Derry and recalls a family history marked by secrecy and silence, and a striking absence of conventional pieties. He remembers the death of an eight-year-old girl, whose body was found on reclaimed land called Inch Levels on the shoreline of Lough Swilly. And he is visited by his beloved but troubled sister Margaret and by his despised brother-in-law Robert, and by Sarah, his hard, unchallengeable mother.

Each of them could talk about events in the past that might explain the bleakness of their relationships, but leaving things unsaid has become a way of life. Guilt and memory beat against them, as shock waves from bombs in Derry travel down the river to shake the windows of those who have escaped the city.

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´A perceptive and moving study of remorse and resilience, of the legacy violence leaves behind, and of the intricacies of family life;in the world as Neil Hegarty conjures it, old secrets never die, and what´s past is never past´ John Banville.

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Hegarty, Neil
Neil Hegarty was born in Derry and studied English at Trinity College Dublin. He is the author of the official biography of David Frost and of the acclaimed novel Inch Levels (Head of Zeus 2016), which will be published by Gallimard in France in 2019.

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