T h e L o n g F a l l i n g
"The Long Falling is the most notable down payment on posterity, and the finest debut novel, I've read in years." Scotland On Sunday
"a book as hauntingly expressive as a church bell at midnight ... stunning." The Independent On Sunday
Winner of the Prix Femina Etranger and the Premier Roman Etranger awards for literature.
A nightmare marriage; a cold, rural community; a tragedy in the past for which she is blamed - these are the fetters of Grace Quinn's life. But then, with an act of violence and despair, she attempts her escape.
The world into which she flees is that of her son, Martin - the confident urban world of a Dublin on the up. But Dublin, and the whole country, is about to be shaken out of its complacent glide into modernity, and Martin - product of the old Ireland, resident of the new - is about to learn that one cannot be separated from the other.
A story of city and country, past and present, acceptance and intolerance, death and what comes after, The Long Falling is, above all, the story of Grace Quinn and her challenge to the contradictions of Ireland at the end of the twentieth century.
"A hundred times worth reading." Penelope Fitzgerald
"Smart and scary and elegant...yet another brilliant export in a long, long line from Ireland." Newsday
"...these are incendiary issues, that Ridgway seamlessly folds into a story that is at times excruciatingly suspenseful..." New York times Review of Books (Selected as a NYT Notable Book of the Year)
"The Long Falling is a splendid book, full of nuance, intelligence and surprise." Colum McCann
"Ridgway lends his domestic tragedy almost operatic proportions." San Francisco Chronicle
"The pacing is superb, written in spare, clean prose. The Long Falling is a brilliant first novel." Colm Toibin
"Complex, harrowing ... narrative skill, mastery of language, a humane insight into the muddles people make of their lives." The Times
"Sin and salvation are the two themes of Keith Ridgway's wonderful first novel...Ridgway knows how to tell a story, but the strength of the novel is in its insightful and compelling emotional details. Succinct, poetic, and emotionally shattering, The Long Falling is not simply a fine debut, but the beginning of an illustrious career." Gay Studies Editor, Amazon.Com
"A
stunning debut...includes some of the best prose recently
written on the Irish landscape and character..a
beautiful book."
A
Different Light
"In the character of Grace Quinn, Ridgway has succeeded in creating, with considerable intelligence and sensitivity, nothing less than the tragic heroine of our time." Michael Hogan, Shaman Drum
Winner (as Mauvaise Pente) of the Prix Femina Etranger and the Prix Premier Roman, 2001.