One by One in the Darkness

by Deirdre Madden

One by One in the Darkness follows a week in the lives of three sisters shortly before the start of the IRA ceasefire in 1994, undercut with the story of their childhood in Northern Ireland of the 1960s and 1970s. The history of both a family and a society, One by One in the Darkness confirms Deirdre Madden's reputation as one of Irish fiction's most outstanding talents.

Genres: Ireland, Fiction, Irish Literature, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Historical, Literature

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 18, 1997

About the author

Deirdre Madden is from Toomebridge, County Antrim in Northern Ireland. She was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and at the University of East Anglia. In 1994 she was Writer-in-Residence at University College, Cork and in 1997 was Writer Fellow at Trinity College, Dublin. She has travelled widely in Europe and has spent extended periods of time in both France and Italy.

Reviews

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 5 out of 5]

 
Home

I grew up in Northern Ireland, in the quiet seaside town of Bangor, County Down. Although I had moved away before the Troubles started in 1968, I came back occasionally, and happened to be shopping in downtown Belfast during the bombings on "Bloody Friday" in July 1972. My wife and I walked back to the station over sidewalks covered in debris; only my preference for trains meant that this was not the bus station, which took the worst of the attacks.

So my attitude now is complicated. My childhood roots are in Ireland, my mother's land; yet from the age of 11, I was being sent away to school in my father's England. I was a witness to violence, almost a victim; yet most of it I watched on television from America. Almost all the literature I have read about the Troubles has been written from the Catholic perspective, most often in anger—a world away from my own position, which I'd like to think of as non-sectarian, but was nonetheless protected by middle-class Protestant privilege. I have read a great deal of Ulster fiction, and there is even more on my TBR pile right now, but the books that have both reflected and added to my own experience have been few and far between: David Park's The Truth Commissioner and Colum McCann's TransAtlantic are a rare two that come to mind. This 1998 novel by Deirdre Madden goes even farther, showing me the country I know, yet taking me into a totally different side of it—rural Catholic as opposed to urban Protestant—and making me realize that we are not so different after all.

The structure is simple. In early 1994, Cate Quinn, who works for a magazine in London, comes home to spend a week with her family in County Antrim; she has a secret to share. The family consists of her older sister Helen, a Belfast lawyer who works with people involved in the violence, and her younger sister Sally, who has returned home to teach on the local school and look after their mother, Emily. Their father has been killed two years earlier, but an uncle and aunt still live close by. Each of the main characters will be given focus in the seven chapters named for the days of that week; alternate chapters go back in time as the girls grow up, the adults go on civil rights marches, and their world turns dark around them.

Writing now, I am sure that this is a five-star book. I was less sure at the start, because its salient qualities—that it is both dense and ordinary—do not in general make for gripping fiction. It has little of the luminosity, for example, of my previous favorite among Madden's books, Authenticity. Yet its denseness comes from the detail of family life, and ordinariness is its essence. Nothing that the Quinns experience, not even the shooting of their father, is the result of particular political activism, let alone terrorism (although their uncle may be more involved). The father is a farmer; the girls are bright, hard-working, curious. Catholic or not, rural or not, the family might well be my own. Certainly the language, the "crack" as we called it, takes me right back to my mother and her friends. Details differ, but they are unimportant. When the Troubles begin, causing a rift between Catholics and Protestants, even between former friends, I find myself now on the other side, seeing it through their eyes. The books by Park and McCann took me into the big action and its consequences; Madden deals utterly believably with the everyday, where not much happens. That is her defining achievement.

For the pattern of their lives was as predictable as the seasons. The regular round of necessity was broken by celebrations and feasts: Christmas, Easter, family birthdays. The scope of their lives was tiny but it was profound, and to them, it was immense. The physical bounds of their world were confined to little more than a few fields and houses, but they knew these places with the deep, unconscious knowledge that a bird or a fox might have for its habitat. The idea of home was something they lived so completely that they would have been at a loss to define it. But they would have known to be inadequate such phrases as: 'It's where you are from,' 'It's the place you live,' 'It's where your family are.'

I very much suspect that the novel is at least partly autobiographical. The Quinns live in Toomebridge at the head of Lough Neagh, the large lake lying in the center of the province like a splash of tea in the middle of a saucer. Deirdre Madden is from the very same town and the poet Seamus Heaney comes from the same area. My father had business that took him there often when I was a child, and I remember the moist fields, the distant mountains, and the smell of rotting flax; you would think that nothing would change. But Madden's novel is all about change, though it is all in the background. Much of it is negative: the decline of traditional industry, the rise of violence, the deepening rift between the clans. Yet there is also a positive tide that you see only as you look back: the University education of all three daughters, their professional success, and their emancipation from old church shibboleths. And the most significant of all, though merely hinted at: that later in that same year, 1994, the opposing parties would sign their first cease-fire. The peace process had begun.

[Lea · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quiet, slow-paced novel from 1997 about three sisters in Northern Ireland and how their childhood during the Troubles and their father's death affected them personally and as a family. At first I didn't find this as gripping as Deirdre Madden's debut "Hidden Symptoms", perhaps because there are so many POVS for such a short book, but in the end I found it the much better and more polished novel.

This is such a subtle and intelligent portrayal of a family caught in a political upheaval, there is no need for melodrama although there's certainly ample opportunity given the subject. The writing is wonderful from the very first page, and although it is quite dense at times and reading it felt like work, I was rewarded by a deeply moving reading experience.

I've only discovered the author last week, but now I'm really keen to read her other novels.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do refer to some novels as stunning. At the end of this novel, I felt stunned. Stunned by its beauty, and its portrayal of a part of the world I love.

Readers who haven’t previously read Northern Irish writers might have the impression that most novels from the North revolve around the Troubles. While the conflict endured from 1969-1998, and beyond, there was life before the Troubles. It is also true that the Catholic minority were marginalized, and second-class citizens for centuries. Northern Ireland has long been a conservative, proscriptive society. Two of the finest novels about the restrictive lives led by women in Belfast are Tea At Four O'Clock by Janet McNeill and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearneby Brian Moore. The recent novels Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty, the story of the lingering impact of the Troubles on a couple who left Belfast years ago, and The Good Son byPaul McVeigh, set in that time and place, have earned praise. Last year, the poet and novelist Nick Laird wrote an interesting novel Modern Gods, which failed to get the attention it deserved. Deirdre Madden is another Northern writer who has been neglected.

This short novel tells the story of the Quinn family, part of a small Catholic community in and around Ballymena. While the novel doesn’t go into the history of Ballymena, it is useful to know that it is a large town, in what is considered the heart of the “Bible Belt”. It was the birthplace of the actor Liam Neeson, and the politician/clergyman Ian Paisley. It revolves around Kate/Cate who has left Northern Ireland to lead a successful life in London. At home she’s Kate, and in London Cate, a change she made so as not to appear “too” Irish. The book was published in the mid-1990’s and I recall encountering “unfriendly” attitudes towards Ireland and Irish people when I was in England in the early 1990’s. England had suffered bombings at the hands of the IRA, and their troops has experienced many casualties.
The novel opens with Kate/Cate returning home for a visit. The novel has alternating chapters between past and present, with the chapters set in the past eventually catch up to current day. The chapters set in the past create a picture of life in Northern Ireland of the 1950’s and 60’s before the Troubles. Rural Ireland, north and south of the border, was closer to the 19th century even halfway through the 20th. The family carried on customs, for example Halloween games, and tying rags on trees around holy wells, practices that dated back centuries. Kate/Cate is one of three sisters. Helen studied law at Queens University, not common for a Catholic woman in those years, and moved to Belfast to practice law. As an adult, Helen still continues to return home each weekend to her family home. The youngest, Sally, is a teacher in the local school, and the most enmeshed of the sisters in the family. At the center of the novel, is the murder of the family patriarch, their father, by paramilitaries. Although unnamed, they most likely were part of a Protestant paramilitary group, who were targeting the uncle, an IRA sympathizer, and mistook their father for his brother. It is this tragedy that binds the family, through contained grief that they bear silently.

Last Friday August 30th, The Irish Times carried an article by Belfast-born novelist, short story writer, and playwright, Rosemary Jenkinson titled “Belfast, Biros and balaclavas”.
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/bo...
Jenkinson commented on writing in the city, first by quoting F.L. Green, author of Odd Man Out, a 1945 novel set in Belfast, and basis for a film starring James Mason. Green wrote of the city: “Things seem to be constantly happening here and the city has an atmosphere that a creative writer needs”. Jenkinson notes : Seventy years on, those words are still relevant and Belfast is a recurrent character in my stories – a bold, boozy, blustering and conflicted presence .

She further writes:
I recently heard… that a relative of my Dad’s cousin had been shot dead in the early eighties. He was a farmer’s son and was going about his work when he was targeted by the IRA. It just goes to show that in this small country nearly every family has undergone a loss. Even minor psychological scars run as deep here as bullet holes but, without them, our writing would not have its passion and depth .
The quote may give the impression that the “passion and depth” of Northern Irish writing is a result of The Troubles. I dare to disagree with Jenkinson, though perhaps it is my interpretation of her words .

The novel is beautifully crafted. It creates a picture of Northern life that explains that the pull of family and community that keeps some people there, and assures others return even if only periodically. I have read several novels set in the same time and place, and I dare to say this may be the best “Troubles” novel I have read. It is quiet, and all never insistent in the way “political” novels can be. I hope that others who read this novel will go on to discover other writers of Northern Ireland. They are probably among the most overlooked writers in the English language, and the literature of Northern Ireland deserves to be center-stage.

October 2024
At the end of my review above, I state that writers from Northern Ireland are among the most overlooked in the world. Madden was recently (in 2024) awarded a Windham Campbell Prize, worth $175,000 to support her work and allow her to focus on creative practice without financial concerns.
This was an incentive to reread this novel. I my 19 years in a Washington DC book club, this was the most enthusiastic discussion we'd ever had.

[CanadianReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this 1996 novel, Deirdre Madden writes movingly about three sisters in their thirties who grew up in rural Northern Ireland as the late 1960s Troubles flared. The novel is premised on the middle sister's visit home to share important news. Beautiful, glamorous Kate (or, as she has preferred to call herself "Cate"--to shave off some of the "Irishness", much to her family's chagrin) fled the misery of her homeland to work for a London fashion magazine. Since tragedy struck the family a couple of years ago, however, her life has lacked its former lustre. The eldest Quinn daughter, Helen, is a successful Belfast lawyer, some of whose professional work involves defending young men charged with terrorism. Studious and driven in girlhood and now perceived by her family as austere, Helen was the closest of the girls to their kind and principled father. She was also the one laid lowest by his death. Sally, the youngest sister, always a frail girl growing up, has over the years become her mother's right hand, demonstrating remarkable emotional strength. She has followed in her mother and maternal grandfather's footsteps and teaches at the local primary school. It has not been easy, and in recent years she has felt compelled to escape.

This short fourteen-chapter novel is structured in an interesting manner. Odd chapters are named for the days of the week that Kate visits with her family; they focus on the present. Even chapters focus on the past: the girls' lovely outings with their father and lively paternal grandmother; the strained visits with their embittered black-clad maternal grandmother; their uncles--one, a sensitive, troubled alcoholic and the other, a jolly but worrisomely committed Republican. As the novel progresses, The Troubles increasingly encroach on the lives of the Quinn family. The older brother of a schoolmate is killed. Protestant tradesmen who used to do business with the family no longer do. The British soldiers arrive, and even pay a visit to the Quinn home--to scout out the outbuildings of the farm and inquire about dogs. Civil rights demonstrations dominate the news. Checkpoints become a fact of life.

Elegiac in tone, much of the novel focuses on the death of Charlie Quinn, the sisters' father. Madden presents a particularly moving scene that Helen remembers from childhood when she heard her father moving about downstairs and left her bed to speak to him. But the book is also forward-looking: Kate's news must be absorbed and adjusted to.

One by One in the Darkness is a beautiful novel, which, in spite of its brevity, manages to say a great deal about life in Northern Ireland in the latter part of the twentieth century. Recommended.

[Marga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volver a una escritora irlandesa es siempre sinónimo de algo bueno. En el periodo del IRA, durante The Troubles, la oscuridad es una forma de vivir y de percibir el mundo. En este ambiente viven tres hermanas: Cate, Sally y Helen. Una a una en la oscuridad, cada una tiene su propia sombra.
La trama avanza desde la memoria, desde una infancia feliz (década de 1960) a pesar del conflicto, hasta un presente marcado por un hecho traumático que condicionó las vidas de las hermanas, un camino que no pueden evitar recorrer (década de 1990). Lo personal y lo político se mezclan con una gran maestría, con una hondura emocional que me ha fascinado.
Nada está dramatizado, simplemente, la autora te permite sentirlas porque todo nace de lo que no se pronuncia, de lo que callamos.
Todos y cada uno de los silencios de la madre, todos los rituales familiares, y la manera en que cada hermana intenta construir una vida lejos de aquello que las marcó.
Para mí, esta historia defiende algo esencial, la oscuridad del conflicto no está en el acto violento, sino en sus reverberaciones emocionales, en cómo perturba la vida diaria y aquello que parecía seguro. Me atrevería a decir que esta historia está marcada, por un lado, por la historia exterior , la sombra del terrorismo, la represión que envuelve a Irlanda del Norte, junto a un momento que fue catártico para la familia.
Y, por otro, por la historia interior, esa que las hermanas Quinn intentan recomponer al volver temporalmente al hogar de su infancia.
Una a una en la oscuridad es, en definitiva, un libro sobre la resistencia interior. Sobre cómo las hermanas cargan el peso de las decisiones históricas. Sobre cómo transitan un duelo no solo personal, sino también político. Una historia que nos permite nombrar lo innombrable sin caer en el exceso.

[Ada · Rating 4 out of 5]

M'ha agradat. Té un ritme lent, costa una mica d'entrar-hi, però vas fent i vas sabent de la vida de l'Emily, la Helen, la Cate i la Sally, a Irlanda del Nord, de petites i de grans, amb totes les seves diferències i tot l'amor que hi ha entre elles. I, de rerefons, el conflicte armat i els seus efectes sobre una família catòlica sense vincles amb la IRA. És un llibre subtil, dur i bonic.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

It wasn't until I was over halfway through this novel that it occurred to me how definitively it had me in its grip. It sneaks up on you, perhaps because of the sliding time references of the alternating chapters but also, I'm sure, because of the patience and care with which Madden develops the characters of the three sisters. The narrative bespeaks a quiet but assured confidence, which is especially notable given that it confronts the networks of trauma and incomprehensibility of Northern Ireland's "Troubles." Despite the very particular historical coordinates, though, its observations and wisdom (about family, growing up, place, etc.) never seem purely local.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nota: 4 sobre 5

Premisa:
Cate vuelve a casa, en Irlanda del Norte, para reencontrarse con su madre y sus hermanas. El presente se entreteje con el pasado para descubrir la historia de una familia condicionada por el clima político y los conflictos derivados del mismo, que marcarán para siempre su vida.

Opinión:
Las historias que utilizan las relaciones familiares como hilo conductor de la trama, y a la vez, como reflejo del contexto sociopolítico del momento, me resultan especialmente interesantes. Creo que es en este ambiente tan cercano y doméstico donde pueden surgir las mayores vulnerabilidades y conflictos, y más aún si el entorno es amenazador e inestable. Esta novela recoge ambas características entrelazadas a la perfección, trasladándonos a través de sus páginas a la Irlanda a finales del s. XX.

Madden ambienta el relato con delicadeza y mimo, utilizando detalles cotidianos y descripciones sensoriales que nos acercan al mundo rural e imprimen un halo de sosiego a la narración, a pesar de la dureza de los hechos acontecidos y el torbellino emocional que tienen que manejar sus protagonistas. Porque el conflicto político les ha arrebatado a un padre y a un marido, lo que inunda sus recuerdos, alusiones y silencios.

Nos empaparemos de su historia familiar en dos tiempos diferentes: el pasado, con muchísimas anécdotas que añorar, y el presente, condicionado por la pérdida y la necesidad de reconstrucción. Así, conoceremos cada vez más a fondo a cada una de las tres hermanas, diferentes pero complementarias, unidas no solo por los lazos de sangre, sino también por la injusticia y el desgarro. 

La autora nos hace comparar ese pasado pausado y contemplativo con un presente desubicado en el que el miedo y la incertidumbre han pasado a formar parte de la rutina de la mayoría de ciudadanos. Un clima imposible de ignorar, sea cual sea tu tipo de vida o tus propósitos. Pero no hay que olvidar que los lazos se fortalecen cuando hay que enfrentar situaciones complicadas, y más aún si el motivo por el que se sufre es compartido.

Si aceptas un consejo, no pretendas leerla demasiado deprisa, ya que puede que no la saborees tanto como se merece. Me ha resultado muy enriquecedora, aunque no he llegado a sentirme cautivada. En este caso, creo que ha sido una cuestión relativa a mi gusto personal, un componente que nos condiciona, aunque intentemos evitarlo.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an insightful look into what it was like to be a Catholic family living in Northern Ireland prior to the IRA ceasefire of 1994. "One by One in the Darkness" tells the story of three sisters. I enjoyed the character development in this story, as well as Madden's beautiful ability to write on her native Northern Ireland.

[Monica Thorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really beautiful writing. The book was slow to start but otherwise incredible.

[J9 Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's one lovely line that describes the childhood of the main characters, and possibly all childhoods: "The scope of their lives was tiny, but it was profound." A good description of the book too. It's small to look at and to hold, but there's such unbelievable depth, I'm not sure you ever properly return. This is the best thing I've read in such a long time.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

The structure is simple. In early 1994, Cate Quinn, who works for a magazine in London, comes home to spend a week with her family near Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland; she has a secret to share. The family consists of her older sister Helen, who is a Belfast lawyer who works with people involved in terrorism and violence, and her younger sister Sally who teaches at the local school and lives with their mother, Emily. Their father was killed two years earlier, but an uncle and aunt still live close by. They are Catholic – a minority which had been marginalized second-class citizens for centuries.
Each of the main characters will be given focus in the seven chapters named for the days of that week; alternate chapters go back in time to follow the characters growing up in the 1950’s and 90’s. The adults go on civil rights marches, and their world turns dark around them. The chapters set in the past eventually catch up to current day.
At the center of the novel is the murder of their father by paramilitaries, and it is suspected that the actual target was not him, but his brother Brian.
The story plods along and takes its time being told considering it is a short book (mine was 180 pages). I found it captivating, despite the jumping around in time and the focus on each sister separately.
The women were well-developed. Emily (mom to the 3 sisters) took teacher training, but married soon after college and “wasted” her training. She transferred her own lost opportunities to her daughters. She came from an educated family, but married a humble farmer and was estranged from her own mother as a result.
I was most impressed with Chapter 9 – Mother Emily’s story includes some humor, and I would actually counsel you to read that chapter first, because it will offer much insight to the personalities of the sisters and help you understand the motivations of other characters.
Helen, the oldest daughter, has become a lawyer, is unmarried, and lives an extremely sparse and uninteresting life. Cate was always a “looker” and her Mom worried most about her. She has a successful job in London and appears to be very well-paid, offering a luxurious lifestyle for herself. Sally, the youngest, was sickly growing up, so never really left home. She became the local school teacher.
There is just enough enlightenment about the time of The Troubles to get an overview of the uncertainty of life, without dwelling on it. You get a sense of how people lived their lives surrounded by daily violence and dealing with learning that people they know have been killed in the streets.
I really enjoyed this book and would read it again someday.

[Khrustalyov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this novel was like listening to my parents' memories of living through the Troubles. The overriding moral question about whether one should leave a place marred in civil conflict or stay and try to endure it - few were naïve enough to think they they could make it better - was one my parents were met with too. They did both, in a way: left and then came back (the latter out of necessity more of less). The writing about rural Northern Ireland is stronger than in other similar novels I've read - Madden has a real eye for that dual sense of openness and enclosure that exists in the small villages of Northern Ireland. This is a novel for readers who liked Louise Kennedy's recent Trespasses - similar themes and questions, although Madden handles them a lot more intelligently and subtly. The split narrative between the sisters is compelling but ultimately does hold us back from a novel of greater propulsion. That said, few novels about the Troubles get this close to a woman's experience of that awful period in history.

[Lisa Hough-Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow burner to start, but as the plot became more political and intense I realised this book had a hold of me. A tragic, insightful account of the impact of the Troubles on a "normal" family in North Ireland, sending three sisters into adulthood disconnected and adrift. I feel I've learned a few things about that period of history and the book left me feeling profoundly sad. Beautifully written.

[John Severs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first of DM's books I have read and I loved it. Definitely a 5 for me because I could easily read it again.

[Carol Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel about a family who lived through the Troubles in Northern Ireland moved me deeply. Deirdre Madden, the author, was born in Northern Ireland, so she know whereof she speaks. She went to Trinity College in Dublin and has spent much time in the Republic of Ireland as well as the North.

The Quinn family's personal struggles and the tragic history of the Troubles are intertwined. The story is narrated by two of the three daughters, and at one point by the mother. The family home is in the country; life was idyllic when the girls were young. Then the violence escalated and spread from the cities to the countryside. The Quinns are Catholic, but they are not anti-Protestant. They watch as a relative becomes more militant.

One of the daughters becomes a lawyer who often represents people who have been charged with violent acts. Another daughter stays home and teaches in the nearby Catholic school she had attended as a child. The third has gone to London because of wider career opportunities for women, but she remains attached to her home.

There is beauty in Northern Ireland, as well as bleakness and violence. The characters in this book are greatly bothered by people who disparage it.

The setting in the era of the Troubles (the late '60s into the '90s) in no way detracts from the emphasis on the development of the characters and the problems many of them face as women. This is a wise and powerful book.

[Meli · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Deirdre Madden novel that I picked up in a Belfast Waterstones while on a trip there last month. The book was placed on a table in the centre of the store with a sign that read 'Tales from the land'; it immediately stood out to me, particularly as a book written by a woman about women.

This is a slow-paced novel about three sisters in Northern Ireland, and how their childhood and father's death during the Troubles affected them personally and as a family. With alternating POVs and flashbacks from the 1960s contrasting with their present-day 1990s, it offers an insider perspective on what it must have felt like to be a Catholic family living through the Troubles - both at the height of it and, unbeknownst to any of the characters, nearing the start of the peace process and the signing of the 1994 ceasefire.

Overall, a slow and quiet read but one full of historical nuance and raw human emotion.

[Lou · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciate the fact that this book deals with the serious topic of what was happening in Northern Ireland during the late 20th century BUT the execution wasn't mine cup of tea. Very slow-paced, confusing at times, overall quite boring. Still, I think books, such as this one, are very important but I'm not the ideal audience, I guess.

[Eimear O'H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Madden is remarkable. Her writing is sharp, and fully submerges you in the key themes of memory, grief, and reflection. Rather than relying on dramatic plot developments, Madden builds her narrative around atmosphere and interiority, giving a strong voice to the psychological and emotional landscape of Northern Ireland which has been shaped by decades of political conflict. On occasion, this did feel too slow to me but overall quite exceptionally employed.
I fully appreciated Madden’s sensitivity to the culture of silence in Ireland and those things which are often left unspoken. This came through heavily with the key characters of Sally, Emily, and Helen.
Overall, quite an interesting piece which I think anyone with an interest in educating themselves on the Troubles should read.

[Naseerah]

Incredible

[GalicianFee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3'5⭐

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was beautiful and warm and sad. Nothing really happens, so many things happen. A love letter to a family.

4/5.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderfully understated novel about the conflict in the North of Ireland seen through the eyes of three sisters and their traumatised mother. Beautiful lyrical descriptions of big skies and nature are juxtaposed with scenes of shocking violence. Highly recommended

[Ghida Aswad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Home. Choices.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Have you ever heard that there is nothing more important to children than what their parents have not been?”

I didn’t expect this one to blow me away the way it did, but alas. I really couldn’t stop crying towards the end; it’s been a while since I last felt a connection with a fictional character as deep and as heartbreaking as the one I felt with Helen.

[Susannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deirdre Madden's short, yet powerful novel 'One by One in the Darkness' follows the story of three sisters: Helen, Kate and Sally, who have been brought up in the Roman Catholic faith in Northern Ireland. Focusing on a week in the sisters' lives shortly before the IRA ceasefire in 1994, and after their father has been killed, the author then moves backwards and forwards in time as she relates the story of the girls' childhoods during the 1960s and 1970s. This novel, although focusing on one family, is not just their story but the story of many who live, work and love in the midst of Ireland's troubles. Helen, the eldest sister and the first of her family to go to university, becomes a solicitor specialising in terrorist cases; she lives and works in Belfast and throws herself into her work to the detriment of her personal life. Kate, the middle daughter, bright, stylish and beautiful, leaves Ireland to live and work in London as a journalist, changing the spelling of her name to Cate, in order not to sound too Irish. And then there is the youngest sister, Sally, who stays on in the family home in the country and is a strong and constant source of support to her widowed mother.

As we read of the girls' childhood years, where the author writes evocatively of the old family house and with an evident and deep affection for the Irish landscape, we are reminded of how what happens in our formative years can significantly affect the way we approach life and how we relate to people in later life. And when the story moves to events in the present day, we learn of how the three women and their mother cope with the tragic death of their beloved father and husband, and of the grief that follows; we also read of their father's brother, who is haunted by the killing and of his feelings of guilt that he should have been the one to have died. As we read on, we are shown how civil unrest and violence deeply and lastingly affect the lives of all involved; but we also see how life must go on, even after a part of one's own world has been shattered.

This is a poignant, beautifully written and quietly transforming story by a very accomplished writer. If you like your stories light and prefer a linear narrative, then this may not be to your taste; but if you enjoy beautifully written stories with an emphasis more on language than plot, and where the story is gradually revealed, then this should make for a rewarding read for you.

[Layla Bing · Rating 3 out of 5]

One by One in the Darkness confirmed for me a trend that I have been noticing in quite a lot of contemporary Irish fiction: namely the lack of a concrete, driving plot. The meandering pace of the narrative which skips back and forth between the characters' present and the past of their childhoods is characteristic of several other novels I've read which deal primarily with the political and religious unrest of Northern Ireland. This stylistic technique allows for the gradual revelation of information and a more thorough portrait of the devastating effects that decades of civil unrest wrought on a deeply divided country. However, it also makes for a story without a clear sense of direction, a novel without a linear plot. It reminded me a bit of Roddy Doyle's The Woman Who Walked into Doors, in the sense that they both played with the passage time and the importance and malleability of memory, and that they both used non-chronological narratives to construct the final picture via a roundabout, piecemeal route.

I can't say that this is my favorite Irish novel that I've read so far-- I'm the first to admit that I am a very plot-driven girl. I did enjoy it for its parts however. There were some great philosophical musings on the nature of childhood and how it affects our ability to have meaningful relationships later in life that really rang true to me. The characters were not particularly captivating to me in and of themselves, but together they painted a picture of the way that one act of senseless violence can affect the lives of everyone it touches. Ultimately the novel touched on themes of isolation- the way in which we can go hand in hand, but each walk alone in fear and grief-, violence, religious marginalization, and dislocation. It asked the question: how do you pick up the pieces of a life shattered by murder, by terrorism, by bigotry? And I think it found some interesting answers. I also think there was a lot that it did not explore. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the Irish Troubles. However, for a more interesting story with a livelier voice, I would recommend Eureka Street: A Novel of Ireland Like No Other instead.

[livros.da.sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

One by One in the Darkness follows the life of a catholic family living in Northern Ireland one week prior to the IRA ceasefire in 1994. The story alternates between past and present as 3 sisters (Hellen, Kate and Sally) recollect their childhood during 1960-70, as the Troubles are at full force.

Kate returns from London, where she works for a successful fashion magazine, to bring some disturbing news to her family. The sister's childhood is spent in a farm located an hour's drive from Derry. This distance from the city keeps much of the horrors of The Troubles at bay for a while, their only contact with them being from their visits, where they would witness the preparations for the Orange Walks: Union Jacks hung out of windows, orange arches with symbols of a compass, a set square and a ladder. However, their lives will be tainted by political violence as the civil rights march in Derry turns violent. This almost-idylic life changes when the british troops move into Northern Ireland in 1969, and the soldiers make frequent visits to the farms, asking for personal information.

The three sisters are all very different from one another.
Kate loves Ireland, but only in leaving was she able to accomplish the success she wouldnt have otherwise. She is now a sophisticated,fashionable and intelligent woman.
Helen rejects religion and becomes a lawyer in Belfast, defending terrorists even after the dreadfull events in her life.
Sally is a primary school teacher like their mother, Emily. She dreams to escape Ireland but is trapped due to loyalty to her mother. The youngest and frailest daughter is the one closest to Emily, maintaining a different bound with her. All of these women are immersed in an unvironment directed by male power.

The book ultimately resumes the religious and political turmoil and its long lasting impact in the lives of normal rural families, inadvertently caught in the conflit. It was just a pity for the lack of a concrete driving plot and the very dense, condensated narrative.

[Tiago Serrano · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the most physically painful reading experiences I've ever had to endure. This book receives such good praise, yet, I found it utterly unbearable. Character construction is the only good thing about the novel. Plot is paper-thin and you could easily cut the novel down by 70/90 pages without losing anything worth mentioning. Simply painful to read and one of the few books I will never recommend to anyone unless they are looking to die of boredom or if they suffer from insomnia. I'm glad I only bought the kindle version because the thought of having to stare at this dreadful novel every day in my bookshelf just makes me nauseous. Utter shit.

[Kirsty Darbyshire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got hold of this because I'd loved Molly Fox's Birthday and thought this was almost but not quite as good. Will be seeking out more by the author in future.