A composer returns to Belfast in Bernard MacLaverty’s lyrical novel about coming to terms with the past and the healing power of music.

On arrival back in Belfast to attend her father’s funeral, Catherine McKenna - a young composer - remembers exactly why she left: the claustrophobic intimacies of the Catholic enclave, her fastidious, nagging mother, and the tensions of a city at war with itself. She remembers a more innocent time, when the Loyalists’ drums sounded mysterious and exciting. She remembers her shattered relationship with the drunken, violent Dave. She remembers the child she had with him, waiting back in Glasgow.

Shortlisted
The Booker Prize 1997
Published by
Jonathan Cape
Publication date
Bernard MacLaverty

Bernard MacLaverty

About the Author

Bernard MacLaverty is an Irish fiction writer and novelist who lives in Glasgow. He has written five collections of stories and five novels.
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