Summer Book Club: Seamus Deane's Reading in the Dark (Part 1 of 3)

Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1996, this semi-autobiographical novel explores the impact of the division of Ireland in 1921 upon a poor working class Irish Catholic family in the town of Derry in Northern Ireland, and leads up to the violent eruption of tensions in 1971 in the British-controlled part of the Island.  Consisting of a chronological cycle of interrelated short stories in three phases, the novel is told from the point of view of a boy growing up and trying to figure out a burdening secret in his family amidst the challenges of social division and oppressive hierarchy, but where lively conversation and sense of humor can be life sustaining.Our guest discussion leader is Dr. Heather Edwards of Ohio University's Department of English.Sponsored by the Friends of the Athens Public Library.