The Village of Longing

"The Village of Longing, George O'Brien's narrative of his childhood in the somnolent river-valley settlement of Lismore, Co. Waterford, during the 1950s, has established itself as a contemporary classic since its initial publication in hardback in 1987." It describes the life and surroundings of an only child raised in an unorthodox household within a close-knit society, ruled by the twin empires of Castle and Church, haunted by the lure of foreignness and the pain of exile. George O'Brien's prose incarnates an Ireland in microcosm - a physical place and a place of the mind.