
Cal - Irish Classics (Paperback)
Bernard MacLaverty (author)Published: 02/05/2019
Set in the Northern Ireland of the 1980s, Cal tells the story of a young Catholic man living in a Protestant area. For Cal, some choices are devastatingly simple: he can work in an abattoir that nauseates him or join the dole queue; he can brood on his past or plan a future with Marcella.
Springing out of the fear and violence of Ulster, Cal is a haunting love story that unfolds in a land where tenderness and innocence can only flicker briefly in the dark.
See also: Lies of Silence by Brian Moore
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781784875503
Number of pages: 176
Weight: 127 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 11 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
To fashion a short, telling novel out of the hideous complexities of Northern Ireland takes narrative skill of a high order. In Cal Bernard MacLaverty has managed to do it superbly -- Nina Bawden
It performs the remarkable feat of compressing into its short span both a doomed love affair and an account of the impossibility of living, in the circumstances of that doomed province, without redemption and without punishment... MacLaverty has a true feeling for tragedy' -- Anita Brookner
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“Cal review”
I first read this book at school in the 90's and thought it would be nice to read again since I'd enjoyed it. It is set in Ulster in the 1970's, during the uprising. The central character is Cal and his... More

“Brutal and powerful in its execution”
The mid 70's to early 80's was a time fraught with danger in Northern Ireland. As an expat living and working in England I am well versed to understand the mindset of the various embattled groups that... More
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