The Gathering
A dazzling writer of international stature, Anne Enright is one of Ireland's most singular voices. Now she delivers The Gathering, a return to an intimate canvas and moving, evocative portrait of a large Irish family haunted by the past. The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan are gathering in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother, Liam, drowned in the sea. His sister, Veronica, collects the body and keeps the dead man company, guarding the secret she shares with him--something that happened in their grandmother's house in the winter of 1968. As Enright traces the line of betrayal and redemption through three generations, she shows how memories warp and secrets fester. The Gathering is a family epic, clarified through Anne Enright's unblinking eye. This is a novel about love and disappointment, about how fate is written in the body, not in the stars. The Gathering sends fresh blood through the Irish literary tradition, combining the lyricism of the old with the shock of the new. As in all of Anne Enright's work, this is a book of draing, wit, and insight, her distinctive intelligence twisting the world a fraction and giving it back to us in a new and unforgettable light.
‘’Reckless intelligence, savage humor, slow revelation, no consolation: Anne Enright’s fiction is jet dark — but how it glitters.’’
''NY Times Book Review''
Anne Enright
Anne Enright (1962) is an Irish essayist, short-story writer and novelist. Her short stories have appeared in several magazines, including “The New Yorker” and “The Paris Review”. Enright's collection of short stories “The Portable Virgin” (1991) has been awarded with “Rooney” Prize for Irish Literature, and in 2004 her short story “Honey” won the “Davy Byrnes” Irish Writing Award.
In 2008 Enright published two collections of short stories - “Taking Pictures” and “Yesterday's Weather”. She has also issued four novels - “The Wig My Father Wore” (1995), shortlisted for the “Irish Times/Aer Lingus” Irish Literature Prize, “What Are You Like?” (2000), winner of the 2001 “Encore” Award and shortlisted for the 2000 “Whitbread” Novel Award, “The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch” (2002), and “The Gathering” (2007), which won the 2007 “Man Booker” Prize for Fiction.
The writing of Anne Enright explores themes such as family relationships, love and sex, Ireland's difficult past and its modern zeitgeist.
