This Plague of Souls
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- $169.00
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- $169.00
Descripción editorial
The follow-up to Booker-listed literary sensation Solar Bones is a terse metaphysical thriller, named a most anticipated book of the year by The Guardian, The Irish Times, and The New Statesman.
Nealon returns from prison to his house in the West of Ireland to find it empty. No heat or light, no sign of his wife or child. It is as if the world has forgotten or erased him. Then he starts getting calls from a man who claims to know what's happened to his family-a man who'll tell Nealon all he needs to know in return for a single meeting.
In a hotel lobby, in the shadow of an unfolding terrorist attack, Nealon and the man embark on a conversation shot through with secrets and evasions, a verbal game of cat and mouse that leaps from Nealon's past and childhood to the motives driving a series of international crimes launched against "a world so wretched it can only be redeemed by an act of revenge." McCormack's existential noir is a terse and brooding exploration of the connections between rural Ireland and the globalized cruelties of the twentyfirst century. It is also an incisive portrait of a young and struggling family, and a ruthless interrogation of what we owe to those nearest to us, and to the world at large.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A man ponders his missing family's whereabouts in this spare metaphysical mystery from Irish author McCormack (Solar Bones). Acquitted at trial on multiple counts of identity theft, artist and carpenter John Nealon returns from jail to his West Ireland farm, eager to reunite with his wife, Olwyn, and young son, Cuan, following months in police custody. Instead, he finds their house dark, cold, and empty of both people and belongings other than his own. The only person who seems to know or care about Nealon's homecoming is an anonymous stranger who telephones constantly, asking for an in-person chat to "compare notes." After several days, Nealon finally relents and agrees to meet the caller. He's heading to Galway for the rendezvous when news breaks on the radio about a nationwide security alert that's grounded flights and restricted other means of travel. In the shadow of that news, Nealon meets his caller and begins a winding, increasingly discomfiting back-and-forth. Evocative prose conjures vivid images of the brooding Irish countryside and Nealon's bleak existence, but by eschewing context, catharsis, or anything resembling a conclusion in favor of setting and mood, McCormack delivers more of a half-cooked literary exercise than a full-fledged novel. While certainly distinctive, this is likely to leave readers wanting more.
