In his mid-thirties, Joe Lyons leads a solitary life in an Irish city as a writer, having never had much luck with relationships - including with his own family, whom he has alienated with his autobiographical first novel. So when Joe falls in love with a young music teacher, he can’t believe his luck. But, just as he is beginning to trust Suzie’s feelings for him, the news comes that his mother is seriously ill. When he returns to the family farm he discovers she has the hereditary Huntington's Disease. A terrible fate seems in store, with profound implications for Joe's future with Suzie, for Joe's ardently religious sister Clare, and for their father. Just as Joe is trying to decide whether to take the test that will either reprieve or sentence him, and whether he should cut himself off from Suzie, his father helps his mother die. For Joe's sister it is a critical crisis of conscience. For Joe it is a lesson in love and self-sacrifice, which he must now apply. Does he love Suzie enough to give her up or does he accept that she loves him enough to stay with him?

'Engages richly and rather profoundly with love, death and life.'

 

 

'A dark and sensuous stylist ... He really is shaping up to be among the very best of the almost overabundant crop of Irish literary production during the last decade

 

 

‘'The novel works on many levels. As an examination of the tangled skeins of family allegiance, it is clear-headed to the point of ruthlessness. In its dissection of a fatal illness, it is both rigorous and humane. But it is the power and subtlety of the writing which sets The Map of Tenderness apart ...With a few deft strokes, he can paint a picture of heart-stopping vividness’

Arminta Wallace, Irish Times

 

Gill Coleridge

Rogers, Coleridge & White

20 Powis Mews

London

WC11 1JN

 

Tel: +44 (0)20 7221 3717

Fax: +44 (0)20 7229 9084

 

 

Melanie Jackson

41 West 72 Street #3F

New York

NY 10023

USA

Tel: +1 212 873 3373

Fax: +1 212 799 5063