Cal - Hardcover

MacLaverty, Bernard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807610704 ISBN 13: 9780807610701

Publisher: Olympic Marketing Corp, 1983

Synopsis

Cal, a nineteen-year-old Catholic in Northern Ireland, becomes obsessed with Marcella Morton, the widow of a man he inadvertently helped to kill

About this title

Review:

First published in 1983, this lyrical novel, superficially straightforward but full of stories within stories, first brought Bernard MacLaverty's work to public attention. In the novel, a young Irish Republican Army operative who wants to break the cycle of violence seeks out a woman whose Ulster policeman husband he helped to murder. As their relationship grows, so do Cal's guilt and sorrow, until, in the end, he is forced to make a sacrifice of himself in order to gain redemption. Rich in ideas and history, this book helps us understand the situation in Northern Ireland--which "is not just there," MacLaverty has remarked, "as a colorful background."

From the Inside Flap:

For Cal,some of the choices are devastatingly simple... He can work in an abattoir that nauseates him or join the dole queue; he can brood on his past or plan a future with Marcella. Springing out of the fear and violence of Ulster, Cal is a haunting love stroy in a land were tenderness and innocence can only flicker briefly in the dark.

About this edition

• Publisher: Olympic Marketing Corp
• Publication date: 1983
• ISBN 10: 0807610704
• ISBN 13: 9780807610701
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 170