Following a car crash, for several seconds Dublin photographer Sean Blake is clinically dead but finds his progress towards the afterworld blocked by a haunting face he only partially recognises. Restored to a miraculous second chance at life - he feels profoundly changed. He is haunted by not knowing who he truly is because this is not the first time he has been given a second life. At six weeks old he was taken from his birth mother, a young girl forced to give him up for adoption. Now he knows that until he unlocks the truth about his origins, he will be a stranger to his wife, to his children and to himself.

Struggling against a wall of official silence and a complex sense of guilt, Sean determines to find his birth mother, embarking on an absorbing journey into archives, memories, dreams and startling confessions.

The first modern novel to address the scandal of Irish Magdalene laundries when it was published in 1994, A Second Life continued to haunt Bolger's imagination. He has never allowed its republication until he felt ready to retell the story in a new and even more compelling way. This reimagined text is therefore neither an old novel nor a new one, but a completely 'renewed' novel, that grows towards a spelling-binding, profoundly moving conclusion.

About the Author

Born in Finglas, North Dublin, in 1959, DERMOT BOLGER is one of Ireland's best-known writers across a range of genres. His fourteen novels include The Journey Home, A Second Life and The Lonely Sea and Sky. His most recent play, Last Orders At The Dockside, had a hugely successful sold-out run at the Abbey Theatre in 2019. His last new collection of poetry was The Venice Suite (2012), a book which resonated widely for its exploration of loss.

Reviews

For me it is Bolger's finest work ... remarkable in its sensitivity and tragic in its accuracy.

-- Madeleine Keane * Sunday Independent *

A marvellous, multi-faceted, fascinating read...Ireland itself (its landscape, its tensions and generational conflicts) is brilliantly realized.

-- Tom Adair * Scotland on Sunday *

Audacious and moving. Bolger's brilliant conflation of detective story, ghost hunt and history lesson is compulsive.

-- Alison Foster * The Times (London) *

'...a devastating, brilliantly wrought novel from one of our finest.'

-- Anne Cunningham * The Meath Chronicle *

This beautiful novel shows Bolger at his best. The twisty, often surprising plot is driven by the characters, and as they are all empathic, and ring true, the reader is constantly rooting for them. There is a mysterious element to the novel too, which adds drama and colour. In all, this is a great achievement and a valuable addition to the canon.

-- Sue Leonard * Irish Examiner *



Book Information
ISBN 9781848408524
Author Dermot Bolger
Format Paperback
Page Count 302
Imprint New Island Books
Publisher New Island Books
Weight(grams) 350g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 20mm