Schopenhauer's Telescope by Gerard Donovan

• Dublin City Public Libraries, Ireland

One afternoon- in a certain European village, in the middle of a civil war- one man digs while another man watches over him.
Gradually they begin to talk.
As the snow falls and truckloads of villagers are corralled in the next field, we discover why the two men are there - not just who they are and how specific, sinister events in their country have led them to be separated by a deepening grave, but why the history of civilization is inseparable from the history of mass violence.

Gerard Donovan was born in 1959 in Ireland. He is the author of three books of poetry, including The LightHouse, which was shortlisted for The Irish Times Literature Prize. Schopenhauer's Telescope, his first novel, was selected for 2003 Man Booker longlist and shortlisted for the 2003 Irish Novel of the Year Award. He currently lives in New York.