Lyrical, gentle, sensitive tale of a by gone rural Ireland. It is the start of a cycle of novels which is designed to depict important moments in Ireland’s historic and social change. This one is set in the 1920’s and is utterly charming
In Springmount, County Wexford, Will hides away to watch Kate Kelly through her cottage window - a moth at the glass. As the strains of the St Anne's Reel fill the air, Kate and her brother Philly begin to dance on the newly laid floor of their living room, while old Mrs Kelly looks on from beside the fire. Desperate to understand how the terrible tragedy in his past can haunt his present, Will thinks back to the 1920s: a halcyon time. Romantic expectation dominates this period of change and tension when traditional order gives way to the new political awareness, and the ties of family and friends no longer hold so much sway. Mountain lads roam country lanes, loaded pistols in their pockets, and innocence and romance are corrupted by a physical passion that runs all too deep.
‘Doyle’s lyrical writing is rich in old fashioned speech patterns, detailed evocative descriptions and fierce action sequences. It all makes for fresh, original writing’ Irish Times
‘His talent for prose [is] at once poetic and excitingly rough. Doyle’s language vibrates with unexpected music – just like the slice of ancient stone in the story, beneath which resonates a horse’s skull’ Guardian
‘A wonderful piece of storytelling. Here are the raw emotions of love, jealousy and a lust for revenge set against a backcloth of the turbulent 1920s in County Wexford’ Yorkshire Post
Author
About Mogue Doyle
Mogue Doyle is in his fifties and has always lived in Co Wexford, where this novel is set. He has been in the building trade all his life. He is the author of Dancing with Minnie the Twig and A Moth at the Glass.