Shadowstory
Regular price
€16.99
A compelling novel of complicated love, from one of Ireland's greatest living writers.
It is the Second World War, and tragedy strikes many families in Ireland. But it is also a thrilling time in which to be a child and Polly, spending months at her grandparents' house by the sea, barely notices the adults' grief and their efforts to escape the tyranny of religion and family expectation. However, in time Polly too will have a secret. No one else knows the location of her beloved uncle, Sam, barely older than Polly herself, who is meant to be in Cambridge but is dreaming of Communist Cuba, while his decimated family fears losing another son. And, as Polly shyly approaches womanhood, her love for Sam turns into something more explosive.
Jennifer Johnston is one of the foremost Irish writers of her, or any, generation. She has won the Costa (formerly Whitbread) Prize (THE OLD JEST), the Evening Standard Best First Novel Award (for THE CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS), the Yorkshire Post Award, Best Book of the Year (twice, for THE CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS and HOW MANY MILES TO BABYLON?). She has also been shortlisted for the Booker Prize with SHADOWS ON OUR SKIN, and won the Irish Book Awards Lifetime Achievement Award, whose previous recipients include Edna O'Brien, Seamus Heaney, John Banville and John McGahern.