All Summer

by Claire Kilroy

Anna Hunt has lost her memory and is on the run. From who and what she is unsure, but trapped in the present she seems certain of only one thing - she is somehow linked to the stolen painting currently being restored in the National Gallery. In a wonderfully unsettling first novel, Claire Kilroy manages to combine beautiful, poetic prose with the menacing atmosphere of a thriller as she explores themes of memory, violence, art and escape.

Genres: Fiction, Ireland, Irish Literature, Thriller, Novels

Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Claire Kilroy is the author of five novels including Soldier Sailor, All Summer, Tenderwire, and The Devil I Know. She was awarded the Rooney Prize in 2004 and has been shortlisted for many other prizes, including the Irish Novel of the Year and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. She studied at Trinity College and lives in Dublin.

Reviews

[GTF · Rating 4 out of 5]

'All Summer' is an impressive debut novel from the brilliant Claire Kilroy.

A suspenseful tale told through highly unreliable narration; the story follows the disoriented protagonist Anna Hunt as she tries to recollect her past. What Anna does remember, is that she had a role to play in a heist of valuable artwork, and keeps a tiny patch of canvass in a match box as a souvenir. Grief stricken by the looming consequences of what she has done, Anna lives on edge, as she does her best to dodge those consequences. The story unfolds as Anna tries to find peace in the present and figure out what exactly she has gotten herself into.

Laced with beautiful and poetic prose, 'All Summer' is a darkly sublime tale wrapped up in romance and betrayal.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to believe a novel written with such verve and confidence and such apparent ease is a first novel, and even more so when I've read two others of Clare Kilroy and both are markedly individual. In many ways this breaks 'rules' by challenging and/or confusing the reader (or me, at least) but does so so compellingly and in such beautiful writing it is impossible not to continue to read and enjoy.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part thriller, part psychological study, this is an intriguing book, but one that I found quite hard to follow at times. There's no doubt Claire Kilroy can write, and write compellingly, and there are some excellent set pieces here - but did I actually like it? Still not sure....but I'm glad I've read it, and will certainly watch her future career with interest.

[Mary Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfect quirky,lean phsycological thriller combined with lyrical windswept writing. Good moments of revelation too

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I neglected to rate this one when I read it but I don't remember it.

[Mariele · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 4th Kilroy novel. I adore her writing. Her plots however, haven't always won me over.

Considering that this is her debut novel, the writing is exceptionally accomplished and discerning. However, it also leads to confusion on behalf of this reader. Just like the main character, half the time I didn't know what was going on. But then I am not generally a great fan of crime fiction.

Another thing that I was wondering about. Yes, the writer is Irish. But how do I know that the story takes place in Ireland when there is not a single such indicator? I was on the lookout for them, but the setting is so deliberately vague, it could have been anywhere with a coastline (or, well, England at least).

[Jude Hayland · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to say that although I hugely admired the writing , I had little idea about what was going on most of the time ….I found the plot very confusing and hard to follow. Very accomplished writing, though

[Abe · Rating 4 out of 5]

My second Kilroy novel after “Tenderwire.”

Audacious storytelling narrated by a protagonist who suffers from memory loss.

Her journey to recover is both suspenseful and cleverly written.

[Alicia Bernaldo de Quiros · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange book. Reminded me of the film Memento.

[Brandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very bizarre book, influenced, no doubt, by what must be the bizarre state of mind of someone in a fugue state. Obviously there's a good deal of meditation on the instability of memories, but something I didn't catch until I started looking back over my notes was the significance of imagination. When Anna can't remember certain details, or couldn't possibly know them, she sometimes creates an imagined narrative of what happened, often followed by a comment like, "Of course, it couldn't have happened like that - I never did X - but what really happened was..." when she still couldn't have known what "really" happened. Sound confusing? It is - and should be; it's a really intriguing consideration of the complex relationship between memory and imagination. Very often, our brain stores only the most basic details of any given experience in our memories, and when we "remember" them, we are actively recreating the experience based not only on what we have stored in memory, but also on what other people tell us and hindsight and common knowledge, along with (somewhat troublingly) other outside information that actually has no place in the original memory. Imagination is clearly involved in these recollections. Philosophers far smarter than myself have tried to pinpoint what, exactly, is the difference between memory and imagination, other than our sense that memories are related to the past, to what's real. But how do we know that, how could we prove it? All of these already troubling questions are complicated when someone loses large portions of their memory. Reading this book was a strange experience and somewhat difficult to follow at times, but there's good reason for the relative inaccessibility of the text if you take the time to think about it, and perhaps do a bit of research on fugue states - I think I might have been much more confused and perhaps even put off if I hadn't already read a decent amount about memory loss?

[Scarlett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is beautifully written: the descriptions and metaphors to describe the feelings of the character are elegant, as well as the intertwined timelines of two simultaneous situations occurring in different places. You have to pay much attention to what's happening since the main character thinks a lot and forgets a lot. By the middle of the novel, Kilroy brings you (the reader) inside the story which was amazing, in general I liked the storyline very much, I think the climax was incredible but unfortunately I did not like the ending. Because of how these characters developed in my mind... there is no way that that is a suitable, even possible ending. This book was aiming for five stars until I read the last two chapters.

[Celeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't remember if this was a 3 star or 4 star. It was certainly intriguing and I wanted to read it again as soon as I'd read it (but I haven't yet). I'm now reading her new book, but it's not published yet so Goodreads won't let me add it. It is called All the Names are Changed and seems a lot less good than the other two, but I'm not sure if that's my opinion or if I'm prejudiced because that was what I was told about it.