One Moonlit Night - Softcover

Prichard, Caradog

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847671071 ISBN 13: 9781847671073

Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd, 2009

Synopsis

This simple novel tells of one boy's journey into the grown-up world. By the light of a full moon our narrator and his friends Huw and Moi witness a side to their Welsh village life that they had no idea existed, and their childish innocence is exchanged for a shocking introduction to the horrors of the adult world. First published in Welsh in 1961, Philip Mitchell's translation, the first complete translation in English, captures all the vibrancy of Prichard's magnificent prose. In this new edition Jan Morris and Niall Griffiths explain why this remains one of Britain's most significant and brilliant pieces of fiction.

About this title

Review:

In a small Welsh village during the dark days of World War I, a nameless narrator chronicles a year of loss, grief, and madness in Caradog Prichard's One Moonlit Night. Originally published in 1961, this Welsh-language novel has been eloquently translated into English by Philip Mitchell, perhaps garnering Prichard the wide recognition his novels have long enjoyed in his native land. Less a novel than a loosely connected series of tales, Prichard peoples his fictional world with characters such as Grace Ellen Shoe Shop, Will Starch Collar, and Johnny Beer Barrel. Though One Moonlit Night has its lighter moments, its story is primarily a sad one: the narrator's mother is sent to an insane asylum; one close friend dies of tuberculosis while another moves away; village men die in the faraway killing fields of the war as the loved ones they leave behind live in unrelenting poverty. Eventually, something terrible happens.

In One Moonlit Night, perfection is in the details--the loving evocations of the townspeople and the physical and emotional landscapes they inhabit. Dark as it is at times, Prichard's tragic tale is leavened by humor and illuminated by prose that is lyrical and deeply stirring.

Book Description:

WINNER OF THE GREATEST WELSH NOVEL

About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1847671071
• ISBN 13: 9781847671073
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192