Remembrance Sunday

SHORTLISTED FOR THE KERRY GROUP NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD 2024

'A quiet work of art that explores the complexity of trauma in the wake of the Enniskellen bombing. McKeon’s writing is sensitive, elusive and philosophical, and pursues an elusive truth at the heart of the Troubles.’ PAUL LYNCH

'Exceptional ... The imaginative storytelling and fine prose of Remembrance Sunday puts McKeon in the big leagues' Irish Times

'A supreme storyteller' Sunday Times

'If you enjoy Colum McCann's work, this novel is for you' Irish Independent

'Impressive ... A poignant, delicately composed novel that doesn't stint on the wreckage of violence' Daily Mail

'Beautifully written' Sunday Independent

Chinatown, New York. After a chance encounter with an old friend, Simon Hanlon, an Irish architect, experiences a seizure, his first in almost thirty years. Soon, they come to him daily.

As he awaits a brain operation, Simon turns his mind back to his childhood on a farm near the Irish border. At fifteen, he was present when an IRA bomb exploded at the Remembrance Sunday parade in Enniskillen. It was in the following weeks that his seizures first began. Now, he is compelled to seek out the bomber from the remnants of his past, and to ask himself the question: why do we harm one another?

Remembrance Sunday is a moving and unforgettable novel about love, empathy and the ways in which history imprints itself upon our hearts and minds.

***

'Deeply felt and delicate, Remembrance Sunday is a timely evocation of the havoc the Troubles wreaked, not just on the street, but on the soul' CLAIRE KILROY

'Beautifully wrought, startlingly perceptive, stealthily gripping . . . It moves masterfully between the forensic and the lyrical, the meditative and the dramatic, the personal and the political' KEVIN POWER

'McKeon animates a story out of the North's recent history with much skill and empathy. Complicating the commonplace, attempting to make sense of the senseless, the novel is an impressive and moving act of imagination and remembrance' NICK LAIRD

'A stunning achievement. I was completely gripped by it and awed at the sublime skill and beauty of its execution. Darragh has created a work of art of immediate relevance and enduring importance' DONAL RYAN

Reviews

A supreme storyteller