The Walk Home

May 12, 2014
Seiffert, author of the Booker-shortlisted The Dark Room, turns to her former hometown, Glasgow, for this thought-provoking novel. As in her previous works, Seiffert illuminates historical and political issues through harrowing personal dramas. The story opens “now, or thereabouts,” as construction foreman Jozef dreams of finally earning enough money on his current building project to allow him to return to Gdansk, Poland, where he hopes to convince his estranged wife to make another go of their marriage. The Polish workers don’t understand young Glasgow native Stevie’s presence on their work crew, but neither do they question it, especially after he uses his skills as a burglar to retrieve supplies belonging to the crew that a former employer has locked away. A second narrative strand, beginning in the early 1990s and eventually intersecting with the present-day story, reveals Stevie’s troubled upbringing in Glasgow. His parents, Eric and Brenda, both from Irish Protestant backgrounds, fell out over Eric’s involvement with a hardline anti-Catholic group. Throughout, Seiffert questions whether it’s possible to transcend a legacy of conflict without escaping your background altogether, and considers what life feels like when the concept of “home” is far from safe or simple. Agent: Toby Eady, Toby Eady Associates (U.K.).

June 15, 2014
The resolutely quiet and somber third novel from Seiffert, who came to prominence in literary Britain in 2001 with her first novel, the Booker-shortlisted The Dark Room, takes place in Glasgow and moves back and forth between two time frames: "Now, or thereabouts" and the early 1990s.The central figure in the present-tense sections is Stevie, a native Glaswegian who has returned from self-imposed exile to his home city to work as a laborer alongside Polish-immigrant construction workers but who has not let his family know. The novel centers on the vexed and ever vexing-inescapable-shadow of the Irish Troubles. Stevie is the displaced child of a displaced child; his mother fled Ireland to get away from the familial and cultural legacy of strife and violence, and when, years later, her husband, Graham, a lifelong member of a marching band, finds himself more and more tempted by the radical politics of some of his bandmates (they have links to Belfast paramilitaries) and decides to join them in marching in the Protestant Orange Walk in Glasgow, she disappears again-and Stevie decamps soon after.Seiffert's use of the Glasgow dialect is simultaneously the biggest stumbling block (for an American reader) and the novel's greatest distinction and triumph; the book is most energetic, persuasive and lively in its sections of dialogue and can seem a bit flat and muted elsewhere, though Seiffert's brio and talent are once again amply on display.

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February 1, 2014

Young Stevie's parents have lived in Glasgow for decades, having fled Ireland during the Troubles. His father has tried to keep the family safe and happy, but when he discovers that some of the folks he marches with in the annual Protestant Orange Walk through Glasgow have ties to loyalist paramilitaries from Belfast, his whole life is threatened. From a Booker Prize finalist, one of Granta's 20 "Best of Young British Novelists" in 2003, and recipient of the E.M. Forster Award.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2014
When one's own home town ceases to feel like home, trouble sets in. And trouble, or more precisely, the Troubles, have been displacing Graham and his family since his grandfather, Papa Robert, was forced out of Ireland a generation ago. Although Graham and his extended family now live in Glasgow, he holds fast to the family pride as a drummer for a marching band. It is during Graham's first annual Protestant Orange Walk that he meets Lindsey, a young runaway from Northern Ireland, and it's not long before Lindsey is pregnant. After Stevie is born, Graham tries to help Lindsey improve their lives, but when a militant loyalist gets interested in the band, Graham falls back into that life, a decision that will destroy his marriage, estrange his parents, and alienate his young son. In this vividly atmospheric, achingly poignant, and sharply provocative tale, British novelist Seiffert (Afterwards, 2007), whose many honors include an E. M. Forster Award, sharply appraises the tenuous bonds that draw families together and the deeply held convictions that can drive them apart.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2014

A family's land is destroyed by revolutionaries in early 1900s Ireland, which sets off a series of betrayals, fractured relationships, and broken hearts passed from generation to generation in Seiffert's third novel (after the Orange Prize-longlisted Afterwards). Papa Robert is a pious Protestant who flees to Scotland once his family's home is burned. He rejects his son Eric, who is gifted yet mentally ill, after Eric marries a Catholic. Robert's painfully shy grandson, Graham, finds camaraderie in a political marching band and marries a girl who has also fled her splintered life in Ireland. As their son Stevie grows up, his parents grow apart, and his mother eventually leaves. Stevie's hurt is so great that he leaves the family as well, working with builders from Poland who have come to the UK to earn a living, reluctantly leaving their own families behind. Although the story shifts back and forth in time, common themes run deep in this novel: people need one another desperately, yet their shared legacy of pain prevents any real healing. VERDICT For readers who enjoy rocky emotional journeys and who also have some understanding of the history of Ireland's political troubles. [See Prepub Alert, 1/10/14.]--Susanne Wells, Indianapolis P.L.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.