num_pages: 261
description: The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn't the drink that killed him - although that certainly helped - it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother's house, in the winter of 1968. His sister Veronica was there then, as she is now: keeping the dead man company, just for another little while.The Gathering is a family epic, condensed and clarified through the remarkable lens of Anne Enright's unblinking eye. It is also a sexual history: tracing the line of hurt and redemption through three generations - starting with the grandmother, Ada Merriman - showing how memories warp and family secrets fester. This is a novel about love and disappointment, about thwarted lust and limitless desire, and how our fate is written in the body, not in the stars.The Gathering sends fresh blood through the Irish literary tradition, combining the lyricism of the old with the shock of the new. As in all Anne Enright's work, fiction and non-fiction, this is a book of daring, wit and insight: her distinctive intelligence twisting the world a fraction, and giving it back to us in a new and unforgettable light.
language: English
title: The Gathering
titlecomplete: The Gathering
genres: Literature, Literary Fiction, Irish Literature, Novels, Book Club, Contemporary, Fiction, Ireland, Unfinished, Family
ratings_count: 23055
places: Dublin, Ireland
awards: awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Booker Prize, awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction Longlist, awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award
category: Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year, awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award, awardedAt: 1230796800000
name: Dublin Literary Award
publisher: Jonathan Cape