The Poets' Wives (40 page)
Authors: David Park
“[Park] carries the reader into the intimate places of his characters’ minds . . . Unique insights quiver into life.” —
The Guardian
Available everywhere in paperback and as an e-book.
ISBN: 978-1-62040-070-8
eISBN: 978-1-60819-758-3
Shortlisted for the Irish Novel of the Year
A BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime
In a society trying to heal the scars of the past with the salve of truth and reconciliation, four men’s lives become linked in a way they could never have imagined. Henry Stanfield, the newly arrived Truth Commissioner, Francis Gilroy, recently appointed government minister, retired detective James Fenton and father-to-be Danny share a secret from their past that threatens to destroy the lives they have painstakingly built in the present.
‘Edgy and compelling … yields moments of heart-shivering beauty … a magnificent and important book’
Joseph O’Connor,
Guardian
‘A fine, crafted novel, but it is also an important book … He sets out to examine what it means to be alive – and does so in fictions that are subtle, understated, not without a hint of menace and always courageous’
Eileen Battersby,
Irish Times
‘We’re reminded that with writers like David Park, the novel can itself be a kind of truth commission’
New York Times
Available in hardcover and as an e-book
ISBN: 978-59691-456-8
eISBN: 978-1-59691-873-3
Winner of the Belfast Arts Award for Literature
Belfast, 1963: unprecedented snowfall smothers and muffles the city and its inhabitants. In a house with windows flung defiantly open, a wife dies before her husband can make his confession. Elsewhere, an old woman searches desperately for a wedding dress in her dream of love. And in the very heart of the city, the purity of snow is tainted by the murder of a girl and as one man begins to unravel the dark secrets of the city, he knows he is in a race against time to find the murderer before the snow melts. With insight and compassion David Park peers into the souls of these ordinary people battling their secrets and desires.
‘A writer of startling grace and integrity … Park’s characters burn like the candles they light against [the dark], shivering but bright’
Daily Telegraph
‘Bewitching … If you liked Ian McEwan’s
Atonement
, you will adore this’
Daily Mail
‘Luminously written … intense and extraordinarily compelling’
The Times
Available now in paperback.
ISBN: 978-1-58234-293-1
Copyright © 2014 by David Park
Illustrations © by Colin Watson
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Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York
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library of congress cataloging-in-publication data has been applied for
eISBN: 978-1-62040-526-0
First U.S. Edition 2014
This electronic edition published in April 2014
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