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Synopsis
Theo Shortcourse has always been overshadowed by his charismatic nephew, Bain Cross, who is three years older than him and the favorite of Theo’s beautiful, manipulative mother, Sparrow. Now the corrupt Bain is the most powerful figure in the Irish Government, and Theo is sought for murder. As he hides from his pursuers in the river delta, he reflects on his life and his childhood in the small town of Monument. There his fate became entwined with Bain, Pax Sheehy – to Theo the moral guardian of his time – and the dark secrets that govern all the characters in his damaged life, from generation to generation.
Wrought in exquisite, ravishing detail, Tapes of the River Delta’s themes of blood and tribe, politics, church and law, desire, betrayal, violence and guilt reflect the “blasted hopes of twentieth century Ireland.” Tapes of the River Delta is part of Peter Cunningham’s acclaimed Monument series. Set in the fictional landscape of the author’s native city of Waterford, these stories describe Irish people and their lives and loves from the late nineteenth century to the present day. The novels have been widely praised in Ireland, the UK and US, and in translation. “A gifted and original novel,” said Booker Prize winner, Barry Unsworth of Tapes of the River Delta. “Cunningham is a writer of great gifts.” “An astounding debut, a breathtakingly brave dive,” wrote Madeleine Keane in the Sunday Independent. Publishers Weekly called the novel “A marvelously lyrical, powerfully erotic novel.”"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Peter Cunningham grew up in Waterford, the city on which Monument, the town on which Tapes of the River Delta is based. His previous work includes a number of thrillers, written both under his own name and under pseudonyms. His novels include Consequences of the Heart and The Sea and the Silence (from the Monument series), Who Trespass Against Us, Taoiseach and Capital Sins. Peter Cunningham is a member of Aosdána, the Irish Academy of Letters, and lives in Kildare, Ireland.
From Kirkus Reviews
The knotted history of a modern Irish family is embedded in a quasi-political debut thriller, a combination providing less than stellar results. Sixtyish and desperate, Theo Shortcourse is hiding from the police in the river marshes near his childhood home, recording the brutal chronicle of his life on a tape recorder. Theo describes his rather idyllic childhood on the river with his best friend Pax and his nephew (though they're of the same age) Bain. Theo lives with his mother Sparrow in the grand house built by her father, Sammy Tea, while Bain lives with his drunken mother in a slum with Sparrow's long-estranged husband, Pa Shortcourse. Close as boys, the three choose very different paths in adulthood: Pax, the most moral of the three, joins the Guards while Theo, rejecting work in his father's sausage business, goes into a government post in Customs. Bain takes over Pa Shortcourses's butcher shop and begins grooming himself, with all the cunning wit of a street hustler, for a career in politics. Intermingled with Theo's narrative of these lives is the melodramatic history of his family, a record filled with incest, betrayal, and insanity. Pa Shortcourse, hailed as a hero in the Irish struggle for independence, is exposed as a liar and thief. Sammy Tea, Theo's grandfather, disappeared into a madhouse after impregnating his daughter--resulting in the birth of Sparrow. The three old friends eventually find themselves locked in a lethal conflict. Bain, now prime minister, blackmails Theo to help him pass missiles intended for the IRA through customs. Pax, determined to expose them, is hot on their trail. Though undeniable voyeuristic interest is created in the revelation of Shortcourse family secrets, the political aspect feels tacked on to support a narrative that tends toward the tedious and rambling. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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- PublisherGemmaMedia
- Publication date2011
- ISBN 10 1936846004
- ISBN 13 9781936846009
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages320
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