A book has spoken to me. It is called Ireland: A Novel written by Frank Delaney is absolutely beautiful. Check out this opening page:
Wonderfully, it was the boy who saw him first. He glanced out of his bedroom window, then looked again and harder-and dared to hope. No, it was not a trick of the light; a tall figure in a ragged black coat and a ruined old hat was walking down the darkening hillside; and he was heading toward the house.
The stranger’s face was chalk-white with exhaustion, and he stumbled on the rough ground, his hands held out before him like a sleepwalker’s. He looked like a scarecrow deserting his post. High grasses soaked his cracked boots and drenched his coat hems. A mist like a silver veil floated able the ground, broke at his knees, and reassembled itself in his wake. In this twilight fog, mysterious shapes appeared and dematerialized, so that the pale walker was never sure he had seen merely the branches of trees or the arms of mythic dancers come to greet him. Closer in, the dark shadows of the tree trunks twisted into harsh and threatening faces.
Across the fields he saw the yellow glow of lamplight in the window of a house, and he raised his eyes to the sky in some kind of thanks. With no fog on high, the early stars glinted like grains of salt. He became aware of cattle nearby, not yet taken indoors in this mild winter. Many lay curled on the grass where they chewed the cud. As he passed, one of two lurched to their feet in alarm and lumbered off.
And in the house ahead, a boy, nine years old and blond as hay, raced downstairs, calling wildly to his father.
The man in question here is a storyteller, one of the last storyteller’s of Ireland. He travels the land telling stories of Ireland and her history. The boy, Ronan O’Mara, lives in the home where the storyteller has stopped. I’m past the storyteller’s first night in this house and I am definitely enchanted. I love Ireland and her history so this is making out to be a magical read for me. I plan on reading Zorro next, at least I hope so. Hopefully this 3 week, going on 4 week, book slump cu
Great first page! I’m still reading and enjoying Saturday, but it’s slow-going. I feel like I’ve been reading for ages and I’m only on page 70. I think it’s more the lack of free time than the book, though.
I’m glad something finally spoke to you! It’s frustrating to keep flipping through books and not being tweaked (or grabbed).
Yeah, I thought it really set the mood of what was to come. So dark and mysterious and…oh, I don't know…tribal? I just have this picture in my mind of what Ireland is like and that description fit perfectly.
Sorry to hear about the McEwan. I have only tried to read his Atonement and couldn't get into it. It may have been a timing thing though, I was pregnant and couldn't seem to read anything. I was brain dead for 9 months.