‘Exquisite.’ Damon Galgut

‘Absolutely beautiful.’ Douglas Stuart

A Book of the Year in The Times and The New Statesman

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