Atalanta

by Fred Johnston

Fred Johnston of Galway, Ireland, has already established a fine reputation as short story writer (Keeping the Night Watch), poet, and novelist, and his latest weaves Greek mythology (Atalanta and Hippomenes), Handel, and the North of Ireland into a dramatic coming-of-age tale. Set in the fictional town of Ardreagh, a small Protestant fishing village in Northern Ireland, it's the 1960s, and the chill of violence hasn't yet begun. This is the story of adolescence and fantasy, love and death, for a teenager and for a province. The unnamed youthful narrator is fascinated by the music of Handel and a beautiful but enigmatic widow, Atalanta McKinley. The impressionable young man soon comes under her femme fatale spell. At first things seem right, normal, hopeful, but the political and social storm is gathering in the rest of Northern Ireland and violence soon engulfs the small seaside village. The magic spell of music and mythical love is shattered too. Dark and destructive sexual secrets are finally uncovered in the book's intense and gothic conclusion. The tone and theme of Atalanta will remind readers of John McGahern, but Johnston's finely-crafted, quietly flowing prose and sharp imagery reveals a world of illusions and social realities that is all his own.

222 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Fred Johnston (born 1951) is an Irish poet, novelist, literary critic and musician. He is the founder and current director of the Western Writers' Centre in Galway. He co-founded the Irish Writers' Co-operative in 1974, and founded Galway's annual Cúirt International Festival of Literature in 1986.

From the early 1980s to the mid 1990s, Johnston contributed poetry and short stories to the Scottish international literature, arts and affairs magazine, Cencrastus.