15 Feb 2012
Location: Portstewart
Event Type: The Arts
In association with Waterstone’s Coleraine
Admission £5 (includes interval refreshments)
Shadowstory is a compelling novel of complicated love. It is the Second World War, and tragedy strikes many families in Ireland. But it is also a thrilling time in which to be a child and Polly, spending months at her grandparents' house by the sea, barely notices the adults' grief and their efforts to escape the tyranny of religion and family expectation. However, in time Polly too will have a secret. No one else knows the location of her beloved uncle, Sam, barely older than Polly herself, who is meant to be in Cambridge but is dreaming of Communist Cuba, while his decimated family fears losing another son. And, as Polly shyly approaches womanhood, her love for Sam turns into something more explosive. Jennifer Johnston is one of the foremost Irish writers of her, or any generation. She has won the Whitbread Prize, the Evening Standard Best First Novel Award, the Yorkshire Post Award, Best Book of the Year (twice) She has also been shortlisted for the Booker Prize with Shadows on our Skin. Her other novels include Truth or Fiction, Foolish Mortals, Grace and Truth, This is Not a Novel, Fool’s Sanctuary, The Gingerbread Woman, The Invisible Worm, The Railway Station Man and Two Moons.
‘Roddy Doyle called her the best writer in Ireland, and I’m not going to argue. Any novel by the great Johnston is an event’ The Times
Admission is £5, payable on the door on the evening. Call (028) 7083 1400 for details.
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