Colm Toibin s second lovely, understated novel that proceeds with stately grace ("The Washington Post Book World") about an uncompromising judge whose principles, when brought home to his own family, are tragic.
Eamon Redmond is a judge in Ireland s high court, a completely legal creature who is just beginning to discover how painfully unconnected he is from other human beings. With effortless fluency, Colm Toibin reconstructs the history of Eamon s relationships with his father, his first girl, his wife, and the children who barely know him and he writes about Eamon s affection for the Irish coast with such painterly skill that the land itself becomes a character. The result is a novel of stunning power, seductive and absorbing (USA Today)."