The Lock-Keepers Wife
The Lock-Keepers Wife
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A Top 10 Fiction Best Seller
"A masterpiece" Irish Independent
"A gorgeous and very serious piece of writing ... A yarn of yearning" The Oliver Callan Show
Julie McDermot has just been released from ‘The Mental’, the psychiatric institution where her husband committed her after the devastating loss of their two infant children. Returning to her narrow, lonely life along the canal, Julie is haunted by grief and the aching absence of what might have been.
As she struggles to piece herself back together, an unexpected encounter with a stranger along the canal offers a glimmer of connection and the fragile possibility of hope. Their encounter also brings long-submerged realities to the surface, to a place where they can no longer be ignored; exploring Ireland’s dark history of institutional incarceration and offering a profound glimpse of hopein a stunning portrait of a woman’s life.
Moving and deeply evocative, this novel is a powerful meditation on sorrow, isolation, and the surprising ways joy can return to even the most broken heart.
Details
Details
ISBN: 9781843519720
Extent: 156
Published:
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Praise and Reviews
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“One of the most evocative and beautifully-written books I have read in a long time. Daring in its simplicity this is a small but perfect book, not a word or sentence is out of place. The minute I finished reading it, I immediately turned to begin again, which only happens with rare books but such is the power of MacKenna’s writing.” Marita Conlon-McKenna
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"A Masterpiece" Irish Independent
About the Author
John MacKenna is the author of seventeen books—novels,
short-stories, memoir, biography and poetry. He has also written a number of stage and radio plays and is a frequent contributor to RTE Radio 1. He is a winner of the Hennessy New Writing Award, the Irish Times Fiction Award and the Cecil Day Lewis Literary Award; his novel The Space Between Us was shortlisted for the Kerry Book of the Year Award. He was recently nominated for the position of Irish Fiction Laureate.