Book description
'It seemed as if the town of Carn, a huddled clump of windswept grey
buildings split in two by a muddied main street, had somehow been
spirited away and supplanted by a thriving, bustling place which bore no
resemblance whatever to it. For a split second, she saw her own death, a
gunmetal face fixed on the sky, all around the faces and voices of Carn
as she had known it. Josie Keenan had come home to the town of Carn, the
only home she knew' 'A unique record by somebody who understands that
the reality of small-town life is as important in literature as any
aspect of Ireland . . . a savage, raw and bitter honesty . . . I know no
Irish writer with such an obvious, extraordinary talent' Dermot Bolger,
Sunday Independent 'Powerful, precise writing - Patrick McCabe's Carn
introduces one of the most promising writers in a long, long time' Bill
Buford, Granta 'Resolute . . . the writing is raw and didactic. His
story bears the hideous ring of authenticity' Guardian 'Stylishly
narrated, but with the chronological forthrightness that comes as a
benison after some modern novels' London Review of Books
