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The Healing
A man is shot dead before the eyes of his young son as they work together in the fields near their home - another victim of the violence in Northern Ireland. In the city, a confused and frightened old man grieves for his own loss and for the shattered world around him. When the young boy's mother moves them both from their country home to Belfast, the old man's life becomes entwined with that of the boy. Fascinated by the silent child, the old man believes he has at last found the instrument of healing.
- GenresIrish Literature
189 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 5, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 16, 2022
when i tell u i’ve never been more fucking confused while reading a book
December 3, 2013
I picked up my copy of this cracking little book from the Queen's Bookshop in 1992 and it has moved around the planet with me the last 20 years - finally dug it out to read a couple of days ago.
I have to disagree with Susan's review. The plot is tight and there is real purpose behind the sermons played out in the mind of the Old Man. There is no real challenge to the book - the pieces fall neatly into place and are entirely credible to anyone who has known Belfast during its tortured years. I will be passing it on to my son's who are luckier to be growing up in Belfast in better times.
The reader is left to answer the brutal question that is posed by the author - does it really make any difference whether murder is committed through love or through hate?
I have to disagree with Susan's review. The plot is tight and there is real purpose behind the sermons played out in the mind of the Old Man. There is no real challenge to the book - the pieces fall neatly into place and are entirely credible to anyone who has known Belfast during its tortured years. I will be passing it on to my son's who are luckier to be growing up in Belfast in better times.
The reader is left to answer the brutal question that is posed by the author - does it really make any difference whether murder is committed through love or through hate?
July 29, 2025
Twelve-year-old Samuel Anderson is baling hay with his father on their farm in Northern Ireland when two masked gunmen appear. They repeatedly shoot Mr. Anderson as his son looks on. The boy gets away, but he is never free from the murderers. Their mocking laughter continues to ring out in his mind. He is hypervigilant, believes he is being watched and followed. He flees into hedgerows and grain fields when he sees a car on the dusty rural roads near the farm. He cannot sleep. The wallpaper pattern in his bedroom morphs into distorted hostile faces.
Thomas, Samuel’s father, was a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), an infantry unit of the British Army, and the reader knows that this is why he was targeted, even if Samuel does not. The time period is not specified, but there’s a reference to the Bellevue Zoo, which was only in operation until 1992, and the UDR was also disbanded that year, so we know the story is likely set in the 1980s. The Healing is one of David Park’s earlier works, his first published novel. I suppose one could now consider it historical fiction.
Elizabeth, Samuel’s mother, cannot manage the farm. She thinks a fresh start in Belfast, where she grew up, might help her and her traumatized son, who has become entirely mute. They move to a house in the southeast part of the city, a traditionally Protestant area, near the Belfast Hills. They are strangers in a strange land: shaken, devastated, and isolated.
They do not know that their elderly neighbour, Henry Ellison, a former parks and cemeteries gardener, equally isolated and apparently suffering from religious mania, has been anticipating Samuel’s arrival. Mr. Ellison, whose point of view gets almost as much attention as the boy’s, has for years been collecting newspaper obituaries and articles about the victims of sectarian violence and targeted killings. He has recently clipped out a photograph of Samuel and his mother at the military funeral for Thomas—a ceremony which Elizabeth only reluctantly agreed to. (She would’ve much preferred a private service and burial.) Since pasting the picture into one of his many ledgers, Mr. Ellison has become fixated on Samuel as the helpmate being sent to him by God to assist with “the healing” he believes he’s been assigned to perform. The old man was certain that the boy would be moving into the house next door, and in this he is correct. The nature and timing of Ellison’s divine mission to address the deep and spreading sickness of his society are not yet clear, but he is confident that the voice of God will direct him.
The hope had been that his son, William (Billy), would be Ellison’s helpmate, but the forces of evil seem to have claimed the young man. The relationship between the two is deeply fraught. Billy’s father meted out harsh corporal punishment to him in childhood, and the long, painful death of Billy’s mother from cancer was the last straw for the youth. He has no belief in the God of his father, a God that allowed his mother to suffer intractable pain. Mr. Ellison understands he has “failed with the boy, failed in every way”; he cannot “shirk from that knowledge or escape from its wounding pain.” He also knows his son has dark secrets, but these are much harder to confront.
Mr. Ellison earns the trust of Samuel and his mother when he offers to clean up their neglected garden. (In fact, Elizabeth is convinced enough of the man’s benevolence and so desperate for her son to have some kind of enjoyment that she allows Samuel to go for drives with Ellison’s son. Little does she know where Billy takes the boy.) For days on end, Samuel digs and weeds in the yard alongside the old man, and although the boy still doesn’t speak, it’s evident the work does him good. He can’t understand all the rambling about God, healing, and being a helpmate. In fact, given what happened to his father, Samuel hates God. However, Henry Ellison, in his delusional state, believes that the boy not only comprehends the task before them, but actually silently communicates with and guides him. He cannot bear to parted from the child and often stalks him and his mother.
This is an intense and claustrophobic novel. Park insightfully portrays trauma in a sensitive, introverted child and credibly presents psychiatric dysfunction and religious delusion. I don’t think I’ve ever before encountered a book that so well captures the devastation that follows a tragedy. Deirdre Madden’s One By One in the Darkness comes to mind, but it’s quite a different book dealing with adult sisters in a Catholic family (not a child) coming to terms with their father’s murder by loyalist paramilitary members. It also doesn’t wrestle, as Park’s novel does, with matters of guilt and complicity.
I will end by saying that healing does occur for Samuel, but it comes in an unexpected way, and Mr. Ellison’s ledgers have something to do with it.
Thomas, Samuel’s father, was a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), an infantry unit of the British Army, and the reader knows that this is why he was targeted, even if Samuel does not. The time period is not specified, but there’s a reference to the Bellevue Zoo, which was only in operation until 1992, and the UDR was also disbanded that year, so we know the story is likely set in the 1980s. The Healing is one of David Park’s earlier works, his first published novel. I suppose one could now consider it historical fiction.
Elizabeth, Samuel’s mother, cannot manage the farm. She thinks a fresh start in Belfast, where she grew up, might help her and her traumatized son, who has become entirely mute. They move to a house in the southeast part of the city, a traditionally Protestant area, near the Belfast Hills. They are strangers in a strange land: shaken, devastated, and isolated.
They do not know that their elderly neighbour, Henry Ellison, a former parks and cemeteries gardener, equally isolated and apparently suffering from religious mania, has been anticipating Samuel’s arrival. Mr. Ellison, whose point of view gets almost as much attention as the boy’s, has for years been collecting newspaper obituaries and articles about the victims of sectarian violence and targeted killings. He has recently clipped out a photograph of Samuel and his mother at the military funeral for Thomas—a ceremony which Elizabeth only reluctantly agreed to. (She would’ve much preferred a private service and burial.) Since pasting the picture into one of his many ledgers, Mr. Ellison has become fixated on Samuel as the helpmate being sent to him by God to assist with “the healing” he believes he’s been assigned to perform. The old man was certain that the boy would be moving into the house next door, and in this he is correct. The nature and timing of Ellison’s divine mission to address the deep and spreading sickness of his society are not yet clear, but he is confident that the voice of God will direct him.
The hope had been that his son, William (Billy), would be Ellison’s helpmate, but the forces of evil seem to have claimed the young man. The relationship between the two is deeply fraught. Billy’s father meted out harsh corporal punishment to him in childhood, and the long, painful death of Billy’s mother from cancer was the last straw for the youth. He has no belief in the God of his father, a God that allowed his mother to suffer intractable pain. Mr. Ellison understands he has “failed with the boy, failed in every way”; he cannot “shirk from that knowledge or escape from its wounding pain.” He also knows his son has dark secrets, but these are much harder to confront.
Mr. Ellison earns the trust of Samuel and his mother when he offers to clean up their neglected garden. (In fact, Elizabeth is convinced enough of the man’s benevolence and so desperate for her son to have some kind of enjoyment that she allows Samuel to go for drives with Ellison’s son. Little does she know where Billy takes the boy.) For days on end, Samuel digs and weeds in the yard alongside the old man, and although the boy still doesn’t speak, it’s evident the work does him good. He can’t understand all the rambling about God, healing, and being a helpmate. In fact, given what happened to his father, Samuel hates God. However, Henry Ellison, in his delusional state, believes that the boy not only comprehends the task before them, but actually silently communicates with and guides him. He cannot bear to parted from the child and often stalks him and his mother.
This is an intense and claustrophobic novel. Park insightfully portrays trauma in a sensitive, introverted child and credibly presents psychiatric dysfunction and religious delusion. I don’t think I’ve ever before encountered a book that so well captures the devastation that follows a tragedy. Deirdre Madden’s One By One in the Darkness comes to mind, but it’s quite a different book dealing with adult sisters in a Catholic family (not a child) coming to terms with their father’s murder by loyalist paramilitary members. It also doesn’t wrestle, as Park’s novel does, with matters of guilt and complicity.
I will end by saying that healing does occur for Samuel, but it comes in an unexpected way, and Mr. Ellison’s ledgers have something to do with it.
August 27, 2014
An unusual, moving tale about coming to terms with loss during the troubles in Ireland. The writing is good and the inner lives of the characters is well observed, but the story never really engages.
July 15, 2018
I'm not entirely sure what I think of this novella. A boy, Samuel, sees his father killed by gunmen in Northern Ireland and becomes an elective mute. His mother moves back to Belfast with Samuel in the hope of starting a new life and Samuel meets an old man (the only name we are given for him) who seems to be a religious fanatic who sees Samuel as the key to his plan to save the world. This book is written in such a slow and lyrical style that at times I had to reread sections to see if I had missed something. I found some of it beautiful to read but other parts didn't hold my attention. So much was unstated that I had to try to guess what was being conveyed and the characters were hard to get a grip on. My overall impression was that it was like trying to hold an intact spider's web in the palm of your hand; the beauty existed but it was hard to grasp. I would recommend this and wonder if a second reading would be beneficial.
December 4, 2023
for school 🙄
May 18, 2013
This dark, bleak novella is set in Northern Ireland during the troubles around 25 years ago. It is a bit patchy - some sections flow beautifully and lyrically- and some don't. It feels a bit dated now, which I guess is a good thing.
September 8, 2012
I really don't have a clue about this book. A lot of sermon, some mysticism, no plot, no answers.
July 12, 2020
Beautifully written, poignant tale of a young boy who witnesses the murder of his father and an old man grieving his dead wife and how their lives are drawn together.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews