Winterwood

by Patrick McCabe

The intention was, of course, to bring her out to Winterwood — to that magical place that only me and her knew — but I wouldn’t tell her that until much later on, for I wanted it to be as much of a surprise as possible … Kimono! I remember laughing Kimono and Pinkie Pie! The Magic Castle, here we come!

Winterwood, a place of dreams and mystery. Once, in Kilburn, Redmond was in heaven, married to the sugar-lipped Catherine, and father to lovely daughter Immy. But later, much later, Red did something. And it could all never be like that again.

Winterwood, a place of escape and sanctuary. Red meets Auld Pappie Ned, a fiddler and teller of tales with honeyed words who seems the authentic spirit of ‘the old valley’, indeed a fiddler by nature and a man so mesmerising that Red sees himself anew, so new in fact that only a fresh name will now do as he leaves (he hopes) the demons of his past behind, the apparitions. And then one day Red spies Catherine again … And still even this is not quite enough to save his new love Casey from the man who’s called Dominic Tiernan.

Winterwood, a place of chill and threat. Of danger, and worse.

Patrick McCabe, author of Breakfast on Pluto and the prize-winning The Butcher Boy, has now written truly his most spellbinding novel; original and luminously canny, Winterwood shimmers as equally as it disturbs as Red tells his inimitable story of death and love.

(From Publisher)

Patrick McCabe was born in Clones, Co Monaghan, Ireland in 1955. His novels include Carn, The Dead School and The Butcher Boy, winner of the Irish Times/Aer Lingus Literature Prize, which was shortlisted for the 1992 Booker Prize and made into a highly acclaimed film directed by Neil Jordan. Breakfast On Pluto, published in 1998, was also on the Booker Prize shortlist. He lives in his hometown of Clones, County Monaghan.