Fintan Buckley is a middle-aged, middle class man, with a wife of 24
years and three children- two teen-aged boys and a 7 year old girl,
Lucy, the apple of his eye. They are Irish and live in Howth, an upscale
seaside suburb of Dublin. His mother Joan lives nearby, as does his
sister Martina. The time is just before the financial crash of 2008.
Fintan enjoys history and finds himself fascinated by autochrome
photography, an early form of color photography that had its heyday
between 1907 and the early 1930s when it was replaced by subtractive
color film. Fintan's interest in autochrome photography leads him to
have certain hallucinatory experiences, taking him, and the narrative,
in and out of his present life in ways that he never expects.At the same time the life of his family goes on around him. He and his wife, Colette, manage their family as their sons grow up and their little girl explores her world; Fintan, who had thought he was finished having children, has found himself quite besotted with his youngest and enjoys being a father to her more than he ever thought he would. Colette gets to know his sister Martina, a beautiful woman with an eye for clothes and a good business sense but a slightly shady past. Martina is just returned from time spent living in London but won't tell anyone why she's come back. Now Martina's opened a boutique, and seems to be settling in, but questions remain. Joan is a fashionable lady with firm ideas about family but she harbors her own secrets as well. The family must deal with its past just as the future is about to launch itself onto their lives.
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| Howth Harbor, October 2013 |
It's my fourth book for the 2014 Europa Challenge.
Rating: BUY!
