Long Time, No See - Softcover

Dermot Healy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571210740 ISBN 13: 9780571210749

Publisher: Faber and Faber, 2011

Synopsis

"Long Time, No See" introduces us to the unforgettable world of Mister Psyche. In the isolated coastal townland of Ballintra in the Northwest of Ireland Recent school-leaver, occasional worker, full-time companion and Malibu-provider to Uncle Joe-Joe and his friend, The Blackbird, Psyche is a boy on the cusp of adulthood, undone by a recent traumatic event. Hanging out with men some forty-plus years his senior proves hazardous for Mister Psyche when the appearance of a bullet-hole in Uncle Joe-Joe's window draws him into a series of (mis)-adventures which unsettle and bemuse. Perhaps The Blackbird is losing it? Or perhaps The General has decided to act on a decades-old grudge? Whichever way, as the paranoia grabs a creeping hold of Uncle Joe-Joe, his fragile world threatens to collapse. And it is Mister Psyche who must digest this and acknowledge the new world taking shape in the old ...An epic in miniature peopled by a cast of innocents and broken misfits, "Long Time, No See's" lyrical power casts a miraculous literary spell.

About this title

About the Author:

Dermot Healy is a poet, novelist and dramatist. He lives in County Sligo and is the author of A Goat's Song, Sudden Times, and The Bend for Home. He has previously won the Hennessy Award (twice), the Tom Gallon Award, the Encore Award and the AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Literary Award.

Review:

 
Praise for Long Time, No See

“A grand read, funny and provocative...tenderness and affection win out despite gunfire, despite ancient jealousies and grudges.” —Annie Proulx, The Guardian

“Funny, sad, wild, tender, profound, brilliant...Ireland’s finest living novelist.” —Roddy Doyle

“A family saga bristling with curiously appealing oddballs and misfits.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Healy’s first novel in ten years is a triumphant return...A beautiful account of one person’s acceptance of his own quiet heroism.” —Library Journal

“Highly stylized, chock-full of colorful dialogue, and steeped in Irish idioms, this is a leisurely read about ordinary folk acting out the dramas that make a life.” —Publishers Weekly

“Compassionate and elegiac...a celebration of the whole gift of existence...everyday chores and family obligations are elevated to the level of epiphany.” —The Times Literary Supplement

“Unforgettable...Nothing happens, but everything happens. Times passes. People die. It all seems so true to actual life, so tangible and authentic...so real you feel you could step into the book and live there.” —The Sunday Independent

“Terrific and exhilarating...Healy’s characters have mouths full of poetry... the poetry of the everyday, laconic, idiosyncratic, and wonderfully droll...Every page is a pleasure to read and the entire book is, as one of Healy’s characters might put it, an astonishment.” —The Sunday Times

“A richly compelling comic-sad tapestry of love and death in which, like the pauses in a Pinter play, truth lurks in what’s left unsaid, catching us off guard.” —The Independent

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber and Faber
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0571210740
• ISBN 13: 9780571210749
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448