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Arimathea
Frank McGuinness
FREE Delivery in Ireland
Description for Arimathea
Paperback. It is 1950. Donegal. A land apart. Derry city is only fourteen miles away but too far, mentally, for people to travel there in comfort. Into this community comes Gianni, a painter from Italy. A book of close observation, sharp wit, linguistic dexterity - and of deep sympathy for everyday humanity. Num Pages: 304 pages. BIC Classification: FV. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 139 x 288 x 20. Weight in Grams: 224.
'The great spirit of Frank McGuinness radiates in this magnificent novel. Myriad voices converge on one glistening core; it is a high-wire act earthed in the deepest humanity.' Sebastian Barry
It is 1950. Donegal. A land apart. Derry city is only fourteen miles away but far beyond daily reach. Into this community comes Gianni, also called Giotto at his birth. A painter from Arrezzo in Italy, he has been commissioned to paint the Stations of the Cross. The young Italian comes with his dark skin, his unusual habits, but also his solitude and his own peculiar personal history. He is a ... Read moremajor source of fascination for the entire community.
A book of close observation, sharp wit, linguistic dexterity – and of deep sympathy for ordinary, everyday humanity.
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Product Details
Publisher
O´Brien Press Ltd
Place of Publication
Dublin, Ireland
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 3 to 5 working days
About Frank McGuinness
Frank McGuinness is Professor of Creative Writing in University College Dublin. A world-renowned playwright, his first great stage hit was the highly acclaimed Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme. This is his first novel, a major event.
Reviews for Arimathea
The great spirit of Frank McGuinness radiates in this magnificent novel. Myriad voices converge on one glistening core; it is a high-wire act earthed in the deepest humanity.
Sebastian Barry spectacular
Sunday World there’s a lovely sense of connection in reading this novel by the playwright McGuinness, a connection to the rest of the writer’s oeuvre … gorgeous ... Read more… a challenging and rewarding read
The Herald prose that could be described as musical … it is hard not to be charmed … elegant and thoughtful, often funny, never dull or repetitive
Irish Echo invested with a weighty, parable-like intensity
Times Literary Supplement curious, unique and unsettling ... this book demands and deserves to be approached on its own terms
Sunday Independent wonderful
Woman’s Way for a novel based in rural Ireland there is freshness to the remote Donegal setting … strikes an unusual note
Nomoreworkhorse.com a novel infused with an understanding of everyday life – the language laced with wit and McGuinness’ panache as a playwright evident in the story as each character takes to the stage
Belfast Telegraph this is McGuinness’s first novel after many years as a prolific and successful playwright. It is a transfer he makes with great ease … the structure of the book cleverly makes the most of his strengths and skills as a playwright. Each chapter gives a distinct voice its stage and each voice adds to the tale and nudges it along
Nomoreworkhorse.com I found it to be startling and memorable … likely to stay with you
Nomoreworkhorse.com fantastic
East Coast FM a really wonderful book
The Green Room, Newstalk FM builds to this heart-breaking finale
The Green Room, Newstalk FM well-worth a read
The Green Room, Newstalk FM an exceptional examination of family, religion and love
Gay Community News in his willingness to leave the rest unresolved … Frank McGuinness creates something both beautiful and new
The Guardian an atmosphere of folklore pervades. Lyrical cadences reverberate in the phrasing and there is a profusion of symbolism … imbuing the novel's events with the uncanny aura of fable or myth
The Literary Review the strangeness of McGuinness's novel, the offbeat atmosphere and the narrative motility, certainly make it an intriguing piece of work. It is perhaps worth enduring bafflement to read a novel that is so defiantly unusual
The Literary Review distinctive and alive … arresting
Irish Times a distinctively Irish book … echoes of Joyce
Irish Times McGuinness the playwright has shown with Arimathea that he is also a novelist, and he has given us a substantial and intriguing book to contemplate and to remember
Irish Times McGuinness’s montage of voices creates beautifully bleak first novel
Sunday Business Post a wonderfully unsympathetic portrait of an Irish town and its quietly suffering inhabitants
Sunday Business Post a beautifully thought-provoking piece of fiction
Sunday Business Post deeply funny about the absurdities of human behaviour
Irish Examiner a powerful, passionate novel … quirky, authentic, often humorous voices
Books Ireland a Greek chorus of quirky, authentic, often humorous voices
Books Ireland A work of passion and truth, in which imaginative daring is matched by deep psychological insight.
Declan Kiberd Poetic and strange, elemental and truly original, Arimathea engages fearlessly with the mysteries of art and love.
Deirdre Madden Show Less