Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize

Luka enjoyed this afternoon-sized novel. Highly readable, but not simple; it thrums with the complexities and tragedies of 1980s Catholic Ireland. It’s very understated, like all the best novels are. It’s one of those painful, concise reads that slaps you with such authentic emotion that you have to stare into space for a while after the final page is turned. Tender like a bruise but so full of hope and love that you can’t help but be affected. – Luka

It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him – and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church.

‘A genuine once-in-a-generation writer.’ The Times

‘[A] snowglobe of a story that fits a whole bustling, striving, yearning world into 114 finely wrought pages.’ Sunday Times

‘Powerful and affecting and very timely . . . deeply moving.’ Hilary Mantel

‘Stunning . . . A haunting, hopeful masterpiece.’ Sinead Gleeson

‘Remarkable . . . Truly exquisite.’ Daily Telegraph

‘A restrained and intensely moral book, full of hope and love.’ Observer

‘Marvellous – exact and icy and loving all at once.’ Sarah Moss