All We Shall Know
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4.1 • 8 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
From the twice Man Booker longlisted author of From a Low and Quiet Sea
'Poetic, powerful and heart-rending' THE TIMES
'An exquisite account of womanhood, friendship, prejudice and tradition that is both intimate in scale and awesome in achievement' IRISH INDEPENDENT
Melody Shee is alone and in trouble. Her husband doesn't take her news too well. She can't tell her father yet because he's a good man and this could break him. She's trying to stay in the moment, but the future is looming - larger by the day - while the past won't let her go. What she did to Breedie Flynn all those years ago still haunts her.
It's a good thing that she meets Mary Crothery when she does. Mary is a young Traveller woman, and she knows more about Melody than she lets on. She might just save Melody's life.
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'A joy to read, for all that it breaks your heart' INDEPENDENT
'One of the finest writers working in Ireland today ... worthy of Greek Drama' GUARDIAN
'A stunning piece of work, utterly truthful and emotionally powerful' JOSEPH O'CONNOR
'Work of genius ... I was entranced by it. Buckled by it' SEBASTIAN BARRY
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ryan (The Spinning Heart) crafts a beautiful morality play that recalls the pastoral dramas of William Trevor or Edna O'Brien. When we first meet Melody Shee, she is 33 years old and 12 weeks pregnant by a 17-year-old Irish Traveller named Martin Toppy; now, deserted by her husband, Pat, and with Martin nowhere to be found, Melody is left alone to contemplate her shame and her unborn child, even as "dying seems as unreasonable as living." But her spirits are revitalized by a friendship kindled in the Travellers' camps: 19-year-old Mary Crothery, a free spirit who "speaks in streams" and whose own scandalous divorce has triggered a vicious feud. Scorned by their respective communities, these two women come to rely on one another and save each other's lives in unforeseen ways. But as Melody nears her due date, she recalls another betrayal, that of a childhood friend, and wonders whether she is "a woman divorced from decency, without restraint," destined to fall short of all who love her. In this story of moral redemption and blood rivalries, Ryan is fair to each of his characters, as well as vivid in his evocation of Traveller culture. The result is a lush and lively novel that fascinates from its opening words to its tender last lines.
