In the Country of the Young - Hardcover

Carey, Lisa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0380976757 ISBN 13: 9780380976751

Publisher: William Morrow, 2000

Synopsis

From Lisa Carey, critically acclaimed author of The Mermaids Singing, comes an evocative, hauntingly beautiful tale of grief, love, and redemption.

She came to them from the sea . . .

On a stormy November night in 1848, a ship carrying more than one hundred Irish emigrants to America's shores ran aground twenty miles off the coast of Maine. Many were saved, but some were not--including a young girl who died crying out the name of her brother. A century and a half later, the descendants of the survivors still remember that fateful voyage and the children who lost their lives to the sea.

In the present day, the artist Oisin MacDara lives in self-imposed exile on Tiranogue--the small island where the shipwrecked Irish settled. The past is Oisin's curse, as memories of the twin sister who died tragically when he was a boy haunt him still. In the isolated community he inhabits, life is so separated from mainland influences that an Irish lilt still flavors the islanders' speech. But Oisin's lingering pain is so great that even in this intimate place he has been incapable of forming a single meaningful relationship.

Then on a quiet All Hallows' Eve, a restless spirit is beckoned into his home by a candle flickering in the window: the ghost of the girl whose brief life ended on Tiranogue's shore more than a century earlier. In Oisin's house she seeks comfort and warmth, and a chance at the life that was denied her so long ago. For an empty man chained by painful memories, nothing will ever be the same again.

In the Country of the Young is a luminous modern fable of a heart's reawakening and an unforgettable journey back to the country of the living.

About this title

About the Author:

Lisa Carey is the author of The Mermaids Singing, In the Country of the Young, and Love in the Asylum. She lived in Ireland for five years and now resides in Portland, Maine, with her husband and their son.

From Publishers Weekly:

Lusciously lyrical, Carey's second novel once again seductively crosses the line between reality and magic. If her first, The Mermaids Singing, introduced her as a skilful writer of tasteful melodrama and acquired her a considerable readership, her new book, backed up by an extensive marketing campaign and a reading group guide, should establish her as a serious presence in the field of quality soft-focus fiction. Set on a small island off the Maine coast, the narrative gracefully shifts from the past to the present, tracing the paths of sensual, compelling characters whose histories are inexplicably linked. Reclusive artist Oisin MacDara has not been quite human since his beloved twin sister, Nieve, committed suicide 25 years ago at the age of 15. He lives alone on the island of Tiranogue, named after an Irish immigrant ship that foundered there in 1848, and rarely speaks to anyone, although almost every single woman on the island has benefited from "knowing" him, in the biblical sense. Gifted with second sight as a child, Boston-born Oisin often saw spirits when he visited his relatives in Ireland every summer. Although he has not seen a ghost since Nieve died, he is always looking for her to return, so Oisin is hopeful when a spirit begins to haunt his lonely cabin and eventually materializes to live with him. However, the ghost is that of a seven-year-old girl named Aisling Quinn, who died in a shipwreck more than a century ago. The result of an illicit affair, Aisling had been ignored by all of her family except her brother Darragh. She and Darragh, who also died at sea, hoped to begin a new life in Canada. Returned in the flesh to Tiranogue, Aisling begins to live the life she was denied, miraculously growing from childhood into adulthood over the course of a year. Crafting a backstory as vibrant and poignant as her primary narrative, Carey lovingly charts the unearthly relationship between suffering souls, carefully skirting simple saccharine solutions. 7-city author tour. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0380976757
• ISBN 13: 9780380976751
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304