Paul Lynch (1)

What a book with which to begin my reading year. I found it disturbing, terrifying, and impossible to put down. It's set in Ireland in the near future, after a fascist government has been elected to power. The narrative is seen through the eyes of Eilish, biochemist, married to Larry, teacher and senior trade unionist, mother of four children aged one to sixteen, and daughter of Simon, who lives nearby in the early stages of dementia. Larry disappears after a demonstration, as the government tightens its grip on everyday life - boys of 17 will be called up for national service for instance, notwithstanding that they might have, like Eilish's son, designs on university and a future career. As daily life becomes daily more difficult, her elder sister living in Canada tries time and again to persuade her to leave with her family, before it's too late, and offers her the help to do so. Always she refuses. She can't leave Larry, she can't leave Simon... and so on. The prose becomes, like the family's life, increasingly claustrophobic. Long breathless paragraphs, light on punctuation drive the story on as Eilish's decision making and relationship with her children becomes increasingly erratic, as the government increases its stranglehold on everyday life, as violence and the impossibility of everyday living increases. This story brought the reality of life in Syria, in Ukraine, in Palestine frighteningly into focus. The final pages should be required reading for the anti-immigration lobby. A deeply uncomfortable read.… (meer)