Full name: In the Forest: A Novel

Author: Edna O'Brien Year: 2002 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Fiction Culture: Ireland Purchase/reserch links: Amazon Goodreads LibraryThing ISBNs: 9780618197309 0618197303

Based on a horrendous true crime, IN THE FOREST is the story of Mich O'Kane -- 'not all there in the head' it's said -- who shoots three people dead in the woods of Ireland. Edna O'Brien traces the events that lead to such horror. Mich O'Kane hears voices; he cannot stop mourning the death of his mother. Theft and other crimes lead him to a Christian Brothers borstal, then to a British prison. By the time he returns home, he is an institutionalised criminal incapable of telling the truth even to himself. Single mother Eily lives with her young son Maddie in a house Mich camped out in after his mother's death. One night, Mich drags them out of the house and orders Eily to drive to the forest. The third death is that of a priest he entreats to come to the murder site. This tragic and starkly terrible story is told from various points of view, including Eily's, Mich's granny's, and a priest's. But the core of the story is Mich, born to fail. Can there be any hope for him? Similar books: House of Splendid Isolation by Edna O'Brien Fools of Fortune by William Trevor The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen The Heather Blazing by Colm Toibin The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien Amongst Women by John McGahern Felicia's Journey by William Trevor The Charwoman's Daughter by James Stephens That They May Face The Rising Sun by John McGahern Wild Decembers by Edna O'Brien The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor The End of the Story by Lydia Davis The Newton Letter by John Banville The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe Arcadia by Jim Crace Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle The Sea by John Banville History of the Rain by Niall Williams Nohow On by Samuel Beckett