For Kieran it's his Irish roots, for Michael it's Kieran's girlfriend, for Kieran's girlfriend it s Godsome infatuations are so explosive it takes years for the dust to settleIt's 1982, and the summer is oppressive. Twin brothers Michael and Kierangasping for air in the middle of an eccentric family that only outsiders find enchantingare visiting their grandparents in County Cork. The questions and entanglements born of that stifling trip are to shape the rest of their lives. Returning to Britain, the brothers don t know whether to call themselves English or Irish. Years later, the fiery young woman unannounced on Michael's doorstep doesn t know which of them to call her father. Shifting between periods of threat and unrest, this is a bold novel of passion, religion, and politics. It is about life's flashpoints, the quiet violence that can shape us, the pressures of expectation, and the seduction of belonging, whatever the cost."