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Hidden behind the walls of Grangegorman Mental Hospital in 1941, four lives collide, all afflicted by the human cost of wars, betrayals and trauma.
Gus, a shrewd attendant, is the keeper of everyone's secrets, especially his own. Two War of Independence veterans are reunited. One, Jimmy Nolan, has spent twenty years as a psychiatric patient, unable to recover from his involvement in youthful killings. In contrast, Francis Dillon has prospered as a businessman, until rumours of Civil War atrocities cause his collapse, suffering delusions of enemies seeking to kill him.
Doctor Fairfax has fled London after his gay lover's death. Desperate to rekindle a sense of purpose, Fairfax tries to help Dillon recover by getting him to talk about his past. But a code of silence surrounds the traumatic violence Ireland has endured. Is Dillon willing to break his silence to find a way back to his family?
In this superb evocation of hidden worlds, master storyteller Dermot Bolger explores the aftershock within people who participate in violence and the fault-lines in all post-conflict societies only held together by collective amnesia.
Gus, a shrewd attendant, is the keeper of everyone's secrets, especially his own. Two War of Independence veterans are reunited. One, Jimmy Nolan, has spent twenty years as a psychiatric patient, unable to recover from his involvement in youthful killings. In contrast, Francis Dillon has prospered as a businessman, until rumours of Civil War atrocities cause his collapse, suffering delusions of enemies seeking to kill him.
Doctor Fairfax has fled London after his gay lover's death. Desperate to rekindle a sense of purpose, Fairfax tries to help Dillon recover by getting him to talk about his past. But a code of silence surrounds the traumatic violence Ireland has endured. Is Dillon willing to break his silence to find a way back to his family?
In this superb evocation of hidden worlds, master storyteller Dermot Bolger explores the aftershock within people who participate in violence and the fault-lines in all post-conflict societies only held together by collective amnesia.
288 pages, Paperback
Published November 27, 2024
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42 people want to read
About the author
Dermot Bolger
99 books47 followersDermot Bolger is an Irish novelist, playwright and poet born in Finglas, a suburb of Dublin.
His work is often concerned with the articulation of the experiences of working-class characters who, for various reasons, feel alienated from society. Bolger questions the relevance of traditional nationalist concepts of Irishness, arguing for a more plural and inclusive society.
In the late 1970s Bolger set up Raven Arts Press, which he ran until 1992 when he co-founded New Island Press.
His work is often concerned with the articulation of the experiences of working-class characters who, for various reasons, feel alienated from society. Bolger questions the relevance of traditional nationalist concepts of Irishness, arguing for a more plural and inclusive society.
In the late 1970s Bolger set up Raven Arts Press, which he ran until 1992 when he co-founded New Island Press.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 22, 2025
There is a real pleasure in reading a novel by a master like Dermot Bolger. The characterization, pacing and historical background is so deft. Here is work from a craftsperson honed by years of practice. The analogy of Ireland during "The Emergency" of WWII to a mental asylum like Grangegorman is so appropriate and relevant to understanding the kind of place Ireland is today. The novel's details of suppression, either of sexuality or civil war crimes, is especially well done. Highly recommended.
September 16, 2025
Trauma of civil war hidden in an asylum, not talked about or resolved in any way. The protagonists of this powerful novel all have their secrets that haunt them throughout the pages. The story is set in Grangegorman, the larges asylum and the prototype for all other such institutions in Ireland. I will be thinking of this one for a while.
November 27, 2025
I thought the writing was stilted and I didn't care much for the story. He did tie it all up well, which I liked, but I skimmed the second half to finish it for bookclub. Everyone else was more taken with it, but his writing let him down.
January 16, 2025
Hidden behind the walls of Grangegorman Mental Hospital in 1941, four lives collide, all afflicted by the human cost of wars, betrayals and trauma.
We go inside the walls of an Irish mental hospital and the minds of 3 Irish Civil War veterans in this historical fiction set during the 1940s when shame and secrecy abound in the early few years of the Irish State.
Absolutely superb read about the horrors of war and the fragility of the human mind, and the damage that secrets can do.
We go inside the walls of an Irish mental hospital and the minds of 3 Irish Civil War veterans in this historical fiction set during the 1940s when shame and secrecy abound in the early few years of the Irish State.
Absolutely superb read about the horrors of war and the fragility of the human mind, and the damage that secrets can do.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews