The Gathering

The Gathering by Anne Enright. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780224078733.

The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasnt the drink that killed him - although that certainly helped - it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmothers house, in the winter of 1968. His sister Veronica was there then, as she is now: keeping the dead man company, just for another little while. The Gathering is a family epic, condensed and clarified through the remarkable lens of Anne Enrights unblinking eye. It is also a sexual history: tracing the line of hurt and redemption through three generations - starting with the grandmother, Ada Merriman - showing how memories warp and family secrets fester. This is a novel about love and disappointment, about thwarted lust and limitless desire, and how our fate is written in the body, not in the stars.