A haunted childhood, lived out in two dimensions. One is legendary: the
Sun-fort of Grianan, home of the warrior Fianna; the Field of the
Disappeared, over which no gulls fly; the house in Donegal where children
are stolen away by demonic forces. The other is actual: the city of Derry
in the Northern Ireland of the 40s and 50s; a place that is also haunted by
political enmities, family secrets, lethal intrigue. The boy narrator of
READING IN THE DARK grows up enclosed in these two worlds, sensing that
they are intertwined in some mysterious ways that he both wants and does
not want to discover. Through the silence that surrounds him, he feels the
truth spreading like a stain until it engulfs him and his family.
Claustrophobic but lyrically charged, breathtakingly sad but vibrant and
unforgettable, READING IN THE DARK is one of the finest books about growing
up - in Ireland or anywhere - that has ever been written.