Synopsis
Chud Conduit, the wild grandson of the most successful businesswoman in Monument, and Anglo-Irish Jack Santry, heir to Main, the estate on the hill, are unlikely friends. United by their love for Rosa and then by a terrible event that flings all three adolescents from their Garden of Eden, Jack and Chud meet again on the beaches of Normandy, where acts of bravery and cowardice determine the rest of their lives. One of them wins Rosa's hand in marriage, the other her eternal affection, sealing their destinies together over six decades, in love and war, through adultery and murder, bound in a triangle that is stronger than social convention, beyond even law.
Consequences of the Heart is a glorious, sweeping narrative that encapsulates a whole Irish community and landscape, a work of sensual lyricism, effortless characterization, and sparkling humor.
Peter Cunningham wrote successful thrillers under a pseudonym before his first literary novel, Tapes of the River Delta, was published to great acclaim in 1996. This is his second literary novel.
* "Consequences of the Heart is the work of a storyteller at the peak of his power." —Dermot Bolger
* "If he never writes another word, he has won an enduring place in the literature of Ireland at the end of this century." —Kevin Myers, The Irish Times
* "A splendidly lush, richly eloquent chronicle of two intertwined careers in a changing Ireland, and of the woman both men adore." —Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
New York Times Book Review - James Zug
... the story of three lovers and their alternating bouts of infatuation and disenchantment is told with delicacy and skill.