Overview
Finely observed and utterly transporting, Cláir Ní Aonghusa’s debut takes us inside a vibrant rural Ireland—and three interconnected lives—on the cusp of change.
Eager to escape her failed marriage, Ellen hopes to recapture the magic of her childhood summers when she decides to leave Dublin for the small village of Ballindoon. She is surprised when her uncle Matt, a nearby farmer, welcomes her with the rather mystifying advice to play it “civil and strange,” a local expression meaning “be polite on the surface but keep your distance”—and even more surprised to find herself attracting the attentions of a younger man. But when the two of them are spotted together and Ellen becomes the focus of her fellow villagers’ gossip and judgment, Matt’s words resonate in a new way. Ellen realizes how little she understands about life in Ballindoon, leading her to question not only her choices, but herself. Meanwhile, she grows closer to Matt and to his friend Beatrice, a widow still troubled by her eldest child’s suicide, and begins to glimpse how the web of connection that defines village life can also be sustaining—which frees her to take a few risks of her own. To Ellen’s great wonder, as the events of this transformative, tumultuous year play out in all three of their lives, it becomes clear that even tradition-bound Ballindoon can allow for new beginnings. Anchored by the cadences of its Irish setting and the love story at its heart, Civil and Strange offers a moving exploration of the possibilities open to us, at any age, in any place, if only we are brave enough to embrace them.
Synopsis
Finely observed and utterly transporting, Cláir Ní Aonghusa’s debut takes us inside a vibrant rural Ireland — and three interconnected lives — on the cusp of change.
Eager to escape her failed marriage, Ellen hopes to recapture the magic of her childhood summers when she decides to leave Dublin for the small village of Ballindoon. She is surprised when her uncle Matt, a nearby farmer, welcomes her with the rather mystifying advice to play it “civil and strange,” a local expression meaning “be polite on the surface but keep your distance” — and even more surprised to find herself attracting the attentions of a younger man. But when the two of them are spotted together and Ellen becomes the focus of her fellow villagers’ gossip and judgment, Matt’s words resonate in a new way. Ellen realizes how little she understands about life in Ballindoon, leading her to question not only her choices, but herself. Meanwhile, she grows closer to Matt and to his friend Beatrice, a widow still troubled by her eldest child’s suicide, and begins to glimpse how the web of connection that defines village life can also be sustaining — which frees her to take a few risks of her own. To Ellen’s great wonder, as the events of this transformative, tumultuous year play out in all three of their lives, it becomes clear that even tradition-bound Ballindoon can allow for new beginnings. Anchored by the cadences of its Irish setting and the love story at its heart, Civil and Strange offers a moving exploration of the possibilities open to us, at any age, in any place, if only we are brave enough to embrace them.
The Washington Post - Peter Behrens
With deft touches of humor and an artful grasp of this world, Clair Ni Aonghusa recounts Ellen's challenging reorientation to village life…The female characters here—Ellen; her heedless Dubliner mother, Kitty; her childhood playmate/local gossip, Terry—are excellent. Uncle Matt, the stoic farmer, is anything but simple.
Editorials
Peter Behrens
With deft touches of humor and an artful grasp of this world, Clair Ni Aonghusa recounts Ellen's challenging reorientation to village life…The female characters here—Ellen; her heedless Dubliner mother, Kitty; her childhood playmate/local gossip, Terry—are excellent. Uncle Matt, the stoic farmer, is anything but simple.—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
This richly detailed and deceptively simple American debut centers on Ellen Hughes, a 38-year-old teacher from Dublin who leaves her unraveling marriage to a callow PR man to live in the village where she spent childhood summers with her cousins. Ellen buys and renovates the cousins' crumbling homestead, all the while trying to exorcise the demons of her old life and gain purchase in her new one. Aonghusa stocks the novel with the usual suspects: a charismatic young contractor; a crusty but charming mentor (in this case, Ellen's uncle, Matt); a wise, older woman (Beatrice, who lost one of her sons to suicide) and an insecure but plucky heroine. This is not to say that Aonghusa's work (as opposed to her novel's structure) is riddled with convention. Where a less honest writer might whisk past the unhappiness of uprooting oneself to get to the juicy stuff, there are moments of real ennui in Ellen's new, rural life, and Aonghusa isn't afraid to depict Ellen as awkward and less-than-smoking-hot in a way that isn't gimmicky. The refreshing blasts of reality give the book emotional heft, and the credible romance that eventually develops is a break from the standard mold. (Mar.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationLibrary Journal
Ni Aonghusa focuses on the relationships among three residents of Ballindoon, a small Sligo parish: recently divorced Ellen, her uncle Matt, and Beatrice, a widow. All struggle to cope with confounding changes in their lives. Ellen leaves her native Dublin in an attempt to relive cherished childhood summers spent in the village. Yet her reappearance among the locals inspires gossip and compromises her budding romance with a younger man. Matt and Beatrice, both of whom are trying to recover from personal tragedies, show Ellen how suffering fosters resilience and the hope necessary to begin anew, even within the narrow social and emotional confines of Ballindoon. The result is a stirring, unsentimental love story set in an Ireland undergoing significant social change. The author's ear for dialog is pitch-perfect, and her characters are complex and often flawed, underscoring their authenticity. Readers of modern Irish novelists, such as Maeve Binchy and Colm Toibin, will find much to admire in this masterly debut novel from an award-winning poet and short story writer.
—J.G. Matthews