Book description
>
But the happiness he has found feels brittle. Rachel's academic
success is launching her out of her proud father's orbit. Tom,
eclipsed by his sister, has withdrawn into a fantasy world. Martin's
gratitude to Alison is a gulf between them. He feels unworthy of his
wife, his life, his luck.
Returning home one night to find police cars waiting, Martin feels
his sins must have finally caught up with him. But their news is
wholly unexpected, a senseless tragedy. And in the face of this
devastating trauma, which tears his fragile family apart, Martin finds
the violence of the past is not gone but merely dormant; its call must
be answered at last.
P>
In the museum Martin stands watch over the past. He has travelled a long
way from his brutal childhood in the Loyalist heartlands of Belfast and
built a life he never imagined he would have - a devoted wife, Alison,
two children, Rachel and Tom, a respectable job. < 'The real
distinction of Swallowing The Sun lies in the brooding gaze turned on
the Warings in their hour of crisis ... perfectly judged and horribly
convincing' Independent on Sunday 'Park is an excellent writer:
psychologically astute, lyrically unflinching. His characters'
smothering guilts or tiny physical sensations are beautifully conveyed'
Daily Telegraph 'There is a Coetzeean accuracy to the writing. Some of
the family sequences are wrenchingly affecting ... Flawed, brilliant,
knotty, uncompromising, this is not an easy novel, but it is an
important and beautiful one' Joseph O'Connor, Guardian 'This novel is
constructed with great intensity and delicacy ... Within its stringent
compass, Swallowing the Sun is a powerful, economical account of an
unbearable turn of events' Patricia Craig, Independent >
But the
happiness he has found feels brittle. Rachel's academic success is
launching her out of her proud father's orbit. Tom, eclipsed by his
sister, has withdrawn into a fantasy world. Martin's gratitude to
Alison is a gulf between them. He feels unworthy of his wife, his
life, his luck.
Returning home one night to find police cars waiting, Martin feels
his sins must have finally caught up with him. But their news is
wholly unexpected, a senseless tragedy. And in the face of this
devastating trauma, which tears his fragile family apart, Martin finds
the violence of the past is not gone but merely dormant; its call must
be answered at last.
P>
In the museum Martin stands watch over the past. He has travelled a long
way from his brutal childhood in the Loyalist heartlands of Belfast and
built a life he never imagined he would have - a devoted wife, Alison,
two children, Rachel and Tom, a respectable job. <
