This Human Season

by Louise Dean

This Human Season is award-winning Booker Prize listed author Louise Dean’s second novel set in Belfast, Ireland, during The Troubles of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
‘Breathtaking…This Human Season is a novel that confirms the arrival of a significant voice in British fiction’. The Observer
It's not personal, he says. But that's a lie in a place where everything is personal, and a matter of life and death too.
It is November 1979. Kathleen's son Sean has just been transferred to Belfast's most notorious prison - Long Kesh, recently renamed the Maze. Kathleen knows that he will join the other prisoners on their non-cooperation protest, known as the Blanket. Rumours of a hunger strike are beginning to circulate.
John Dunn has finished twenty years in the British Army. After three tours of Belfast, he's found a girl and a house and a job as a prison guard. In the weeks before Christmas, both Kathleen and John will find themselves in impossible situations. Both will have to find a way to survive when everything they love is in danger of being destroyed.
'Magnificent.' Arena.
'This is a fine and thoughtful historical novel which manages to find humour and decency in the most awful of places.' The Sunday Times
'Audacious . . . remarkable. That an English woman born after the Troubles began should take one of its most grisly episodes—the 'dirty protests' in the Maze prison—as the focus of a compelling family drama is ambitious to say the least. That she should pull it off with such compassion and perceptive detail is nothing short of astonishing.' The Telegraph 'Louise Dean's pitch-perfect second novel, ''This Human Season,'' recreates the time of the troubles ... With remarkable evenhandedness, she evokes the day-to-day struggles of English and Irish, Protestant and Roman Catholic, as they try to get on with their lives while the world around them goes insane ...' New York Times
'Dean mercilessly heightens the suspense while managing at the same time to confer complexity and even grace on her characters and on their forbidding city.' The Boston Globe
'Dean's great achievement is showing us how ordinary people can go on with their lives in the midst of extraordinary brutality and how a few are able to do so with compassion and hope.' People
'How everyday people become mortal enemies is both the central mystery and tragedy of this intelligent book.' Entertainment Weekly
‘Not a wasted moment in this terrifying and terribly funny book.' Kirkus Starred Review.
‘Dean is an audacious arrival in British fiction. She is unafraid to tackle unsexy or unsafe material, or to stray beyond the domestic sphere.’ The Guardian ‘Dean is brave enough to offer the reader a glimpse of real hope…She is also an eloquent architect of the strengths and shapes of passion…Ranging across this desperate landscape is a novel which captures a community’s resilience and it’s humour full of broken glass.’ Ali Smith, Times Literary Supplement
'With clear-eyed compassion, and with all the resources of the novelist's art, Louise Dean leads us through those terrible days when for a while Belfast was a vortex for the worst of the world's cruelty and pain' J.M. Coetzee
Louise Dean is founder and course director at the worldwide writing school for novelists The Novelry.

Genres: Fiction, Ireland, Historical Fiction, Politics, British Literature, Irish Literature

458 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Louise is the founder of Thenovelry.com. The online creative writing courses recommended by the world's leading literary agencies with five-star reviews.

Louise Dean has won the Betty Trask Prize, Le Prince Maurice Prize, been nominated for The Guardian First Book Prize, and longlisted for the Booker Prize.  Her first book 'Becoming Strangers' was named one of The Observer's top four books of the year.

'Louise Dean's fearless, frank and darkly comic novels have brought a fresh colour and character to English fiction.' Boyd Tonkin, The Independent.


'Dean is an audacious arrival in British fiction.’ The Guardian.

'Dean writes with beautifully controlled clarity about family ties, social class, the generation gap and the vanished England of the past. She’s extremely funny, but also humane and moving.' The Times.

'Dean has a deliciously lucid and seemingly effortless style…’ Daily Mail.

Louise teaches novel writing and short stories and has spoken at Hay on Wye, Brisbane, Galle and Edinburgh Festivals.

She has appeared on BBC News, Radio 4, Woman's Hour with Jenni Murray and Mariella Frostrup amongst others.

Louise was educated at Cambridge University and has lived and worked in the USA and France.

Reviews

[Helen Callaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know what's been happening lately - I've had a load of barely started books on the go for the last few months while I've been working on the first draft of Find Me, and no energy to finish any. It's only now the draft is completed that I've been able to properly sink into them. And how much I've enjoyed them - it reminds me again that all books are a two-way street, not something you passively consume. You also have to bring your A-game to them, and not just the other way around.

This Human Season has had me gripped for days. It's a richly textured, beautifully told story based around the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Closed off army veteran John Dunn has taken a job in the Maze prison, formerly called Long Kesh, and Kathleen Moran's son Sean is part of the blanket protest with the other IRA prisoners in the months running up the first hunger strike.

There is a wealth of bleak sharp humour and warm but scratchy domestic detail as both live their lives and separate but interlinked family dramas while, outside, the threat of sectarian violence and growing dread draws ever nearer to home. There's a wonderful thread all the way through of how brutality begets brutality, breaking down all involved, and yet despite this humans can continue to love, hope, and attempt to build again.

It is not a particularly easy read in places - it doesn't shy away from the horrors of life in prison during the protests, or the lurking fear and intimidation of the prison officers taking place in the community, but it gave me a great deal to think about. In the gaps between being able to carry on reading, this book haunted my mind.

I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the Troubles (especially if, like me, they were a kid at the time and a lot of the context for the headlines went over your head), or if you are interested in great books in general.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve only ever read one book set in Northern Ireland – but that was nothing like as confronting as this one. David Park’s The Light of Amsterdam (2012) is a comparatively recent book which makes no mention of the conflict known as the Troubles at all. This Human Season, by contrast is grounded in the Troubles. It tells the parallel stories of a mother whose 19-year-old son has just been sent to the notorious Maze Prison, and a man who has just started work there as a prison guard.
I am mindful that readers who have come to adulthood since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 may not know much about this horrific conflict which claimed the lives of more than 3500 people. Events still in living memory are ‘history’ now, yet for people of my generation, deaths from the IRA bombing campaigns in Belfast and London were a regular item on the nightly news, in the way that Islamic terrorism is now.
Wikipedia provides this brief summary (lightly edited to remove links and footnotes):

The Troubles (Irish: Na Trioblóidí) was an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland during the late 20th century. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, and the Conflict in Ireland it is sometimes described as a “guerrilla war” or a “low-level war”. The conflict began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.] Although the Troubles primarily took place in Northern Ireland, at times the violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England, and mainland Europe.
The conflict was primarily political and nationalistic, fuelled by historical events. It also had an ethnic or sectarian dimension, although it was not a religious conflict. A key issue was the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Unionists/loyalists, who were mostly Protestants, wanted Northern Ireland to remain within the United Kingdom. Irish nationalists/republicans, who were mostly Catholics, wanted Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and join a united Ireland.

This Human Season takes place when the British army had been sent into Belfast to try to prevent violence between the two sides, but inevitably the soldiers became targets themselves. There had been a crackdown on nationalist sympathisers and hundreds of them had been arrested and were in the Maze prison. As part of a protest to have these prisoners deemed political prisoners rather than criminals (some of them guilty of murder and targeted assassinations), the prisoners began a gruesome campaign known as the Dirty Protest. (The BBC has videos here, but they are graphic, you have been warned). Inevitably prison guards became targets themselves as well.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/08/15/t...

[Fadi Kharoufeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘A person could kill someone they loved for something they loved better’

‘People need to be sad as much as they need to be happy’

This read was quite good and it has the christmas setting well into it. The problem it is a bit daunting reading it around Christmas, when it is cold, we have a pandemic and lockdown...it isn't a very cheerful read. The writing is exquisite but also difficult to follow at times. It is a book for the strong hearted. The historical part of it is extremely interesting and the way the prisons, brutality of the British police and treatment of the IRA prisoners was discusses and portrayed brilliantly. I loved the main characters John Donna and Kathleen , their family members but I could not connect a lot with some of the supporting characters, neighbours even police officers.

I rated 3 stars because:
1) The christmas atmosphere in daunting Belfast within a community that knew each other was superb.
2) The writing was probably hard but still enjoyed the irish phrases, and it was done extremely well - I enjoyed it.
3) The characters were deep and very human - extremely likeable and they could be as real as you get in the real life.

I took 2 stars off because:
1) As I mentioned above, this is sad story that happened in history for people in Ireland but reading git in this year's christmas made it extra hard.
2) The supporting characters were one dimensional - apart from the children. I wanted them to feel as good as sean, John, Kathleen, father Pearse.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will start on a slight negative for me which was the rigid alternating chapters of one being about Kathleen Moran's family including her son Sean who was in Long Kesh "on the blanket" and the next about John Dunn, ex-soldier come prison officer working in The Maze. I found that I was initially more interested in the story of Kathleen and her family and it was almost irritating to have to read about the prison officer's life. However I am glad I persevered as John Dunn's story developed well and by half way through I was absorbed with both peoples lives.

I loved how Louise Dean managed (through using speach by the characters) to show the humour and some of the reality of living through such times. The characters were not the most finely drawn I have come across but their language showed me who they were and helped me identify with them. I think the book is a family drama but one set in most extraordinary times where politics was indivisible from peoples lives and goes out of its way to try to show how different individuals managed to live their lives during this time. The people are not perfect and in a way each person tries to find a way to distract themselves, Kathleen's husband Sean with drink, Kathleen with her affairs and John Dunn with his stoic mans man attitude.

The climax (which I wont give away) was unfortunately for me guessable but to be honest this didn't spoil the emotional impact of the book.

[Alex Csicsek · Rating 4 out of 5]

1979 Belfast was a pervasively political place. Which makes it all the more curious that Dean's novel is the stuff of personal and human tragedy.

This Human Season is far too sophisticated to ignore the politics of its setting, but those politics are integrated in a wonderfully natural way that allow them to serve as an impetus without overshadowing the characters themselves. And this novel is very much about the characters. It tells the stories of two individuals who couldn't be more different: Kathleen Moran, a Catholic mother in West Belfast saddled by an unfulfilling marriage and a son on the blanket at Long Kesh, and John Dean, a former British Army soldier who settled in Belfast to take a job at the prison.

Both characters go about their lives as Christmas comes and goes in Northern Ireland. And while the book does paint an excellent portrait of the human side of the Troubles, its real strength is painting a portrait of the human side of life, especially the bonds between family, friends, and community. The reader is spurred on by a sense of impending tragedy foreshadowed by the violence that surrounds both characters, but the real purpose of the narrative is to spend a few weeks with Kathleen and John.

Not the greatest character sketches ever produced, but certainly worth a read.

[Chrisiant · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this just after re-reading Belfast Diary by John Conroy, which I had originally read as a textbook in a college course on the History of Ireland.

The book is set in 1979, right in the thick of "The Troubles" period of Ireland, just before a round of hunger strikes by Catholic prisoners. Reading it just after a good historical context book worked really well, I think. The fiction fits right into the non-fiction framework set up in my head by Conroy's book, and little plot points or obscure references would click because of my earlier reading.

I felt like the switching back and forth between "sides" each chapter (between the Republican/Catholic/prisoner set of characters and the Unionist/Protestant/prison warden set of characters) was a little forced. It seemed like it might have served better in several places to continue with one storyline instead of bouncing back to a kind of unnecessary scene in the other storyline.

The ending, at least on the Protestant side of things, was way too predictable, and on the Catholic side it was a little too happy an ending for me. Generally though, I enjoyed the book and thought it was pretty well written.

[Marisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just ok. That's the only way I can describe it. None of the characters were terribly memorable and the mixing of the character's viewpoints, instead of enhancing the story only served to convolute matters and make none of the characters very likeable. It took me a good majority of the book to fully grasp the plot and the author's intent in writing this and the plot moved very very slowly. No major/imperative plot moments - just a lot of slice of life style writing. One of the principle characters doesn't survive (spoiler alert)but when I got to that part I only found myself sort of caring that he was dead. It was an interesting look at Ireland and Irish politics but as far as quality of plot and identifiable characters this isn't a fantastic book.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story told of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1979-told by two points of view; a guard at the Maze prison and the mother of one of the prisoners. Their lives are so similar; bleak and sad with no other outcome except death.

[Chuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story started off strong but unfortunately I forced myself to finish it.

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird story with a horrible ending.

[Melanie Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

The characterisation and the evocation of time and place are nothing short of triumphant. THIS HUMAN SEASON reads like a love letter to the cadences of smoky Irish voices.

[Gabby]

I am about 30% through with this book. I found it while searching for a self-help book on Libby...and I was not mentally prepared for the content. It is beautifully & sparsely written, and without a lot of context for the time period it covers, I found myself doing a lot of Googling to try to understand the plot and the characters. Putting it in DNF for now bc its just very emotionally draining and hard to read casually. But maybe one day I'll get the physical version and be able to read it w/ more ease.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written novel set in a difficult period in the history of Northern Ireland. I was tempted to quit early on - it seemed likely that there was going to be violence associated with at least some of the characters in the book - but I'm glad I continued. The well-drawn characters, the flashes of humor, the insight into how people react to very trying circumstances made the book ultimately quite rewarding.

[Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started reading this book, but I stopped in the first few pages. The author thinks that people say “Jesus, Joseph and Mary’ instead of Jesus Mary and Joseph. The language is irritating. I knew the Belfast of that time, I still know the people and the language and this was just too irritating to continue.

[Anne Gibbons-Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horrific

How she managed to write with such knowledge and balance about these awful times is amazing. She brought the horror and humour together to keep this reader entranced. A first class writer whose other books I'll now seek out.

[Mr M Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Due credit

Credit to the author for tackling a difficult subject, pulling it off incorporating very believable characters with authentic voices. Disappointed that main strands did not quite converge, and the peppering of commercial devices was an unnecessary evil.

[Danath01 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent

[Cate Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely breath-taking novel. Meaningful and thoughtful, it is an encapsulating work - a favourite.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant depiction of The Troubles

[Sarah Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully Irish. Hard and soft.

[Evanston Public Library]

Belfast, 1979, is the setting for Dean's second novel. It is told from the point of view of Kathleen Moran whose young son Sean is being held in the Maze prison's notorious H-block, and of John Dunn, a guard at the prison. Sean is taking part in the "dirty protest" that Irish Republican prisoners organized when they were denied the rights of political detainees. Dunn, retired from the British Army, has taken his job out of necessity rather than because of any strong convictions about the Troubles. The author shows great empathy for both points of view and injects the story with a surprising amount of humor. (Mary B., Reader's Services)

[Judith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book because it is set in Belfast in 1979, during the hunger strikes, made famous by the death of Bobby Sands, in the Maze prison. I lived in Belfast during that year and I was naturally interested in how this book portrayed the hunger strikes and the people affected by them. The book has no heroes, nor anyone that I could find sympathy for, nor anyone that I could even vaguely like. In addition, even though the subject matter was fascinating, the narrative was boring and I just lost interest.

[Faith]

Ireland. 1979. 2 months before Christmas. The Northern Ireland Troubles. Kathleen with grown up son in prison and husband god knows where. John, prison guard who has finally found himself a girl (not Kathleen). "...both K and J will find themselves in impossible situations. Both will have to find a way when everything they love is in danger of being destroyed."

It was very hard to get into this book. Half away through I still wasn't engaged... Too many characters, too little happening. But it was worth finishing the book!

[Georgia Gross · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel takes place in Ireland, December 1979, the height of "the troubles". It chronicles the worry of a mother whose son has recently been sent to jail and the life of a newly appointed prison guard. I am interested in doing more research on the IRA and then reading this book again when I have more than a mere cursory understanding. I have Armed Struggle:The History of the IRA, but I haven't read it yet.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting novel about Belfast in the late 1970s told from several pov - the mother of a prisoner, a British prison guard, the community priest. Very sympathetic to the human condition rather than one side or the other. One plotline went where I thought it would go, the other was a total and rather wonderful surprise.

[Katy Brandes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally finished this book...it took a long time to get into it. The characters started to come to life about half-way through. You get to see both points of view with no bias, and it's a tragic story (albeit fictionalized) no matter which. Definitely a good read if you're interested in this history.

[Matthew Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Other reviewers did not seem to like the characters in this book. Maybe it is hereditary, maybe genetics, but I thought they were very good. Good persons overwhelmed, understandingly so, by the situation. Picture yourself, one son in Maze prison the other on route. I found it realistic and tragic. A land of no winners.

[GK · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really moving and engrossing tale of two families on seemingly opposite sides of The Troubles. Excellently written and absolutely recommended.

[Sophie]

I didn't make to read this one yet, although I bought it a long time ago...

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think you might have to have an interest in the 'situation' in Northern Ireland to truly appreciate this book.