Finbar's Hotel

'The hotel has stood in Dublin's quays since the '20s, but its glory days have long since passed it by. It's decrepit now the haunt of weekend-breakers and tourists who don't know any better. Most of the guests and staff we meet are escaping from something ...The joy for the reader come from the ingenuity with which each successive writer picks up the baton, teasing unforeseen consequences from events in earlier chapters. The result is always funny and often profound' John O'Connell, Time Out 'Whoever is behind the middle-aged man facing his midlife crisis, a cat-napper trying to order an acceptable meal for his yowling victim or two sisters drunkenly disinterring their past, they all share a common sense of humour. That liking for witty one-liners, or for a contrariness which encourages a woman to tell a man picked up in the bar that she is a nun, is extremely funny' Aisling Foster, The Times 'Seven top-notch contributions and a genuine feeling of collective impulse ...the result is not merely a proper novel, seamlessly executed and with discernible themes and patterns, but a very good novel indeed ...The reader leaves Finbar's decaying premises enthusing over the state of modern Irish writing' D. J. Taylor, Spectator 'This is a very good work indeed ...You should check out or into Finbar's Hotel today' John Dunne, Books Ireland

It calls itself a novel, but Finbar's Hotel is really more a collection of related short stories by novelists. Irish writer Dermot Bolger came up with the idea to invite six of his literary colleagues to collaborate on a tale about a decrepit Dublin Hotel on the eve of its demolition. In its prime, Finbar's was a glorious place; now, however, it's the haunt of prostitutes and thieves. A new owner plans to pull it down, but before he does, the seven authors (Bolger, Anne Enright, Joseph O'Connor, Roddy Doyle, Jennifer Johnston, Hugo Hamilton, and Colm Tóibín) imagine for it one last night. In "Benny Does Dublin" we meet Ben Winters, a fortysomething husband and father on the lam from his loving family for a single night. "He'd never been in a hotel room before. He wanted to see what staying in one was like. He was curious. All of these were right, honest answers. But why alone? Why so close to home?" "White Lies" introduces Rose and Ivy, two sisters united by love, divided by a painful secret. In "The Test" Maureen Connolly comes to Finbar's to hide from a broken heart and ends up mending it instead.

The serial novel has been tried before; what provides Finbar's Hotel with its twist is that none of the stories are signed. Bolger leaves it up to his readers to guess who's who. Those familiar with the work of these Irish novelists will enjoy the puzzle; others will still have these seven stories of love, despair, and redemption to relish. --Alix Wilber