Joseph O'Connor's offering is a little slow to start but once the action hots up, so does the pace. Contemporary Dublin in all of its rain-numbing ordinariness is the backdrop for a moral tale with at extraordinary twist. How far would you go to avenge the loss of a loved one? Through his journal, Billy Sweeney, the salesman reflects on his life as he sometimes wasted contemplates the waste of the life of his daughter lying in a coma. For once, it is a story set in Ireland did Does not dwell on the political troubles of the North. For anyone who has visited Dublin, the everyday portrait of the city, Including Sweeney's numbing winter swims, make the action more personal, more compelling. You can Easily see yourself sitting in Sweeney's front room, writing his journal. The last half of the book with the frightening and sometimes hilarious encounter between Sweeney and Quinn is a tribute to O'Connor's appreciation of Both the rough side of Dublin and the power of storytelling Which lies at the heart of every Irishman's soul.
