"‘Part thriller, part treasure hunt and part love story … Profound and heartbreaking’ Sunday Times
‘A terrific, engrossing novel’ Roddy Doyle
‘A masterpiece’ Sebastian Barry
‘A rich, strange book. Very truthful and moving’ Tessa Hadley
The new novel about the transformative power of art, the weight of history and the strange connection we make with one another, from the author of The Speckled People.
The narrator of The Pages is not a human but a book: a first edition of Joseph Roth’s masterpiece Rebellion, rescued from a Nazi book-burning in 1933. In recounting its history, it tells a multitude of stories: of Andreas, the character who lives in its pages; of its current owner, a woman whose discovery of a hand-drawn map in the book begins a thrilling mystery; and of Roth himself, a writer on the run. Together, they form a compelling story about art, nationalism, the weight of history, and the strange connections between us.
‘This book simply must be read. It is magnificent’ Irish Independent
‘A powerful, powerful piece of work’ Colum McCann"
"The palm trees give the street a holiday atmosphere. There must be something in the soil they like. They have straight leaves that get a bit ragged, with split ends. At night you hear them rattling in the wind.
The narrator of Dublin Palms has returned to Dublin to set up home with his partner Helen and their two children. Their lives are filled with optimism, but also a sense of dislocation. Overshadowed by the Troubles in the North, their family enterprise begins to come apart. As the creditors line up to be paid, they must consider leaving everything behind. What will they gain when they stand to lose all?
In this spectacular novel from the author of The Speckled People, a family tries to hold on in a falling world. It is a powerful story of fragmentation and belonging, of emigrants and people returning home."
