The spruces are so close together that the barks are a sable-brown.
Michael O'Kane is known as the 'Kinderschrek', the 'child scarer'. He haunts Cloosh Wood in western Ireland. As a boy he lost his mother and by the age of ten he was in prison. Now he seeks sacrificial victims to satisfy his delusional fantasies: a beautiful young mother, her infant son and a trusting priest, who are enticed into the forest.

Inspired by a real triple homicide, this novel is a 'tour de force of finely restrained fury' (Newsday).

A young mother, her infant son and a Catholic priest are all murdered by a delusional young man.

About the Author
Edna O'Brien wrote more than twenty celebrated works of fiction, including her classic The Country Girls trilogy, as well as plays and four works of non-fiction, which have been translated into over thirty languages. Her final novel Girl was awarded the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year in 2020. She was the recipient of many honours, including the Irish PEN Lifetime Achievement Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature, and the David Cohen Prize for Literature, as well as being appointed an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2017. In 2021, O'Brien was also named Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Born and raised in the west of Ireland, she lived in London for many years before her death in July 2024.


Book Information
ISBN 9780571397495
Author Edna O'Brien
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Faber & Faber
Publisher Faber & Faber