Gaff Topsails
by Patrick Kavanagh
ISBN: 9781896951843
Format: Trade Paperback
Size: 5.5" x 8.5"
Price: $19.95
Publication Date: April 22, 2005
Synopsis:
Set on the coast of Newfoundland on June 24, 1948, the Feast of St. John the Baptist, Gaff Topsails is the story of many characters. A middle-aged Irish priest, newly arrived from the New Guinea missions, reflects on a failed love affair. Michael Barron, a mute boy-man, has fallen in love and is puzzled and frightened by the way that his life is turning into a dangerous business. His younger brother, Kevin, is terrorized by whispering monsters that pursue him. An adolescent girl-woman invokes the pagan superstitions of Midsummer’s Day. A woman spends most of her waking hours seated in a rooftop chair, overlooking the sea, waiting for the return of her fisherman-husband. Old Johnny, the mad lighthouse-keeper, remains haunted by a horrifying experience years earlier when his deceit saved others from a terrible death. In the midst of the twentieth century, the spirit of an Irish castaway, dead five hundred years, survives within every soul in Gaff Topsails.
Subjects:
FIC019000 FICTION / Literary
FIC014000 FICTION / Historical
FIC047000 FICTION / Sea Stories
Reviews
“There is no mistaking the talent and vivid imagination at work throughout the novel.”
— Publishers’ Weekly
“Like Joyce, Kavanagh uses language as a metaphor for the division of souls and of countries … The ultimate effect is individualistic and … refreshing.”
— The New York Times
“Patrick Kavanagh’s debut is a rich and ambitious book … above all, it thrills to language and brings the ordinary to new life.”
— The London Times
“This first novel has much to recommend it. Atmospheric, full of memorable characters and salty vernacular.”
— Library Journal
“Kavanagh writes lovingly and carefully of a life and a land that he must know in his bones, so intimate is the sense of it we are left with.”
— The Globe and Mail
“This extraordinary first novel … marks the advent of a major new Canadian literary talent. Kavanagh’s musical prose is full of the lilt of Newfoundland voices and his knowledge of the nooks and crannies of language and folklore is profound.”
— The Toronto Star
“Like flaming Catherine wheels, Kavanagh’s prose takes us rolling across landscapes and across time … This is a serious new Canadian talent, and a magical story well told.”
— The Ottawa Citizen