In the Province of Saints

by Thomas O'Malley and Adriana Herrera

Book Overview

O'Malley sets a haunting local mystery against the tense backdrop of a country tormented by bloodshed and deep schisms.

In the tradition of Seamus Deane and John McGahern, a stirring, beautifully written, but unsentimental portrait of an Irish boyhood.

Thomas O'Malley's work has appeared in literary journals such as "Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, Shenandoah, Gulf Stream, and "Blue Mesa Review".

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316110396
• ISBN13: 9780316110396
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Truth and Beauty

As the New York Times and The Washington Post suggest, this is, indeed, a beautiful, heartbreaking tale in which the lives of real people in difficult circumstances are explored. This may, truly, be depressing to readers who have never had to endure hardship or poverty or experience violence in their lives but O'Malley has a need to explore people whose lives aren't as comfortable as ours, people who endure and succeed despite the hard choices that they must make-this seems such an integral and necessary function of the human condition and of living and O'Malley captures this fully. Perhaps those readers (I'm amazed by the reviewer who critiques the book without even finishing it?) who have never had to experience hardship or never been witness to it are merely more complacent than some of us and desire fictions that offer a safe, alternative perspective to this reality. That is entirely their choice. Myself, I eagerly await O'Malley's next work!

Chuig an mé mhuinta scafóideach

In the Province of Saints is an exquisitely written book that reveals the real Ireland that many of us Irish experienced in the years before the Celtic Tiger. It's too bad that the reviewer, Seaghaan Mar, cannot see past his petty prejudices to truly read and appreciate this beautifully crafted book. Perhaps he was reading a book other than this one? It is clear from his comments that he has no real understanding of the Irish or of our experiences (hardly folklore). O'Malley's characters are rich and fully realized, and every moment of rural life is captured with such precision and authenticity that one feels the author's love and respect for these people. There is darkness here and the hardships are those that many Irish have experienced, but this does nothing to dim this distinct vision nor does it lessen the worth and meaning of such hardships. O'Malley writes without a shred of self-pity or sentimentality and this is a testament to his maturity, and that in the very dark yet very real moments of these character's lives O'Malley casts light, tenderness, and hope. He shows us all the darkness so that we may see the light, something every person (Irish or otherwise) can understand. With In the Province of Saints, O'Malley reveals his authority and command as a writer, a writer mature beyond his years, and already, it seems, masterful in the form. No wonder Booklist has chosen this book as one of the ten best first books of 2005 and the New York Public Library has picked it as one of the best twenty five books from last year, in their Books to Remember for 2005. I look forward to reading more from this promising writer.

A brilliant story, richly told

Thomas O'Malley's In the Province of Saints is a novel to savor. It tells the story of Michael McDonagh, a young boy in a poor, broken family rural Ireland in the late 1970s, from the time he is 9 or 10 until he is 13 or 14. The novel is told in heartbreakingly beautiful prose that is completely absorbing; as a reader, you will feel you are there, in Michael's skin, watching the clouds brood on the horizon and smelling the pigs in the yard. The novel concerns Michael's confrontation and struggle with, and ultimately his understanding of his father's repeated abandonment of his mother and his family, first through his philandering and later through his departure for America; his mother's growing illness and imminent death; Michael's own sexuality; and finally, his sense of responsibility for his family and for himself. This is a world in which right and wrong, historically spelled out by the church, social hierarchy and the family, are ostensibly black and white. But in the late 20th Century, it is a world in which right and wrong are often reversed, and in which survival and even salvation depend upon violating traditional boundaries. Thus, we see, time and again, a cycle of transgression, punishment, penitence and redemption that Michael, his father, other members of his family and those around him not only endure but embrace both to get along day to day and to grow beyond their circumstances. For example, we see Michael at the age of 9 or 10, stealing eggs and bread from the neighbors because the family is in arrears with the dairy man. His mother discovers his wrong, and slaps his face in punishment, but the boy stands fast, and despite her rebuke, the mother keeps the stolen food. The scene is rich in moral ambiguity and the struggle of both characters to find what is right. Much later in the novel, this transgression is echoed by Michael's blatant vandalism of a neighbor's shed -- payback for the neighbor's exaction of penitence from Michael's father. The spiral goes on, with Michael eventually witnessing the ultimate transgression by others, which places him in the position of deciding whether to step into the role of judge and mete out punishment or to take another path. The story is both compelling and moving. One of O'Malley's many great accomplishments in this novel is a portrayal of a land and characters that is panoramic in scope -- with respect to both the exterior and interior landscapes. Likewise, young Michael's growth from a boy to a young man is meticulously, yet subtly drawn, even down to the language, which early on seems deliberately (and rightly) hesitant and tentative, but which becomes bolder and more forceful as Michael matures. This is a novel that will engage you completely, that will absorb you with the richness of its language and that will endear you to its noble, fallible characters.

Glad I Found This

What a wonderful story of hope and sorrow, failure and triumph! The author puts you in the middle of conflict while, at the same time, gives the reader a true appreciation of the struggles in Ireland. This is a "must read" for all who share an Irish heritage and those who are sorry they don't.

"Beyond, everything moved as it would, but here, time was stilled"

Michael McDonagh seems to be forever attached to the land surrounding him. As he looks out from his small house in New Rowan, in the South of Ireland, he sees a setting of almost spiritual and saintly beauty. But amongst this beauty is a life of heartbreak and suffering, as Michael, his sick mother, Moira, and his twin sister, Molly, struggle to cope after Michael's father; Padraig abruptly leaves for America to find work. In the Province of Saints is an exquisitely written mood piece, portraying a country on the brink as its folk struggle with poverty, desperately trying to find themselves amongst the sectarian violence of the 1970's. Throughout the cold and the hunger, Michael gradually comes of age and learns over the course of several years what it means to be in love, to bare the scars of family illness, and also to see his loyalties towards his relatives' shift and change. With Padraig now gone, Michael and Moira are left to shoulder the burden, and to care for Moira. Padraig had returned once and he tells Michael that Ireland had sucked the life from him; he couldn't go back to that, not after America. He even admits that it would be a kind of death. Meanwhile, Moira puts up with the townsfolk whispering behind her back, quietly talking about her husband's philandering ways, as she tries in vain to come to terms with all these years without him. Michael is a quite and reflective boy, who is given the job of collecting his mother's dole money, while cancer steadily, eats her away. As her illness consumes her more and more each day, she becomes embittered by the abandonment and infidelity of her husband. Their hopes and dreams and promises to each other, and to their children inevitably broken. In a country that is "full of old ghosts and old hate," Michael finds solace in the arms of local girl, Cait Delacey. But the affair is short lived, as Michael seems destined to wander through life disillusioned by the father who repeatedly abandons him, a mother who at times hardly notices him, and at other times seems to hate him because he reminds her of her husband. Even his extended family of aunts and uncles seem to fail him. So Michael is left to his own devices, picking up odd jobs here and there, working for pittance on the local farms. He's a boy who steadily becomes a man who is filled with amazement at the natural beauty that passes before his window; with all the desolate hardship, Michael is constantly wondering at the struggle of it all. As the land shifts and changes, "hedgerow and valley and thick fertile field turning to stone and fog," Michael recognizes the vast difference between the world he knew he would eventually leave behind and the one he was passing into. Everything shines so brightly - the hillocks and paddocks, the high hedgerows, "the plowed fields, the hills covered in gorse, and higher up, the usually dark heather." Author, Thomas O'Malley writes from the heart, imbuing his narrative with staggering descrip