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- ISBN: 1-894692-02-0
- $24.95
- Fiction
- 336pp
- 2002
The Music of What Happens traces the daily lives of the Maguire family in the tiny Irish village of Slanabaille (Safe Home) while beyond their pastoral horizons the terrible beauty of the Irish Independence movement is born. As the guns of World War I, the Easter Rising and all that followed echo behind their lives, Emer Maguire raises her nieces and nephew after her brother flees to America, shattered by his wife's death in childbirth. Curlews cry, faery lights flare on the bog and the Banshee howls as, with a practical hand and steady heart, Aunt Emer guides Una, Nan and Donny toward education and a better life and Ireland struggles into in the modern era. Crystal dialogue and compelling storytelling bring characters fondly to life in a landscape that is sensual, lyrical and fraught with Irish history. The Music of What Happens is a great read and an elegant and accomplished debut novel.
"Coyle Martin has sandwiched a sweeping heart-tugging film between the covers - almost every passage brings sharp images and its own pleasing emotional arc."
The Globe and Mail