'I caught a glimpse of him, behind the veil. And he knew I'd caught it. There was that understanding between us. We were members of the club of the X-ray eyes, the club of people who can see into the human heart.'

Eilis Ni Dhuibhne's candid and moving memoir tells the story of her thirty-year relationship with the love of her life, internationally renowned folklorist Bo Almvqvist, capturing brilliantly the compromises and adjustments and phases of their relationship.

Twelve Thousand Days is a remarkable story about love, grief and time, shot through with wry and sharp observations on Irish life, culture and morality.

About the Author
Eilis Ni Dhuibhne has published over twenty-five books, including six collections of short stories, several novels, books for children, and plays. She has won three Bisto awards, an IBBY award, a Readers' Association of Ireland award, several Oireachtas awards for novels in Irish, and the Butler Award for The Dancers Dancing, which was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize. In 2015 she was awarded the Irish PEN award for her outstanding contribution to Irish literature, and in 2016 she was given a Hennessy Hall of Fame award for lifetime achievement. She is a member of Aosdana, an ambassador for the Irish Writers' Centre, and President of the Folklore of Ireland Society (An Cumann le Bealoideas Eireann).

Reviews

Ni Dhuibhne is one of Ireland's finest novelists and short story writers ...This book is a tribute to that rich personal life, to the sons of the marriage, to the days of debate and domesticity, of cultural insights and liberal views, to the "collection, preservation and study of Irish folklore", to the Gaeltacht areas of Donegal and Kerry, and the Scandinavian holiday interludes. ... This account of "love and loss", for all its mournful aspects, is a resonant and resourceful undertaking; and its ultimate effect is exhilarating and affirmative. - Patricia Craig, TLS January 18 2019

-- Patricia Craig * TLS *

A precise and honest self-portrait, carefully crafted, reticent and then revealing, but also absorbing and moving.

-- Colm Toibin * Irish Times *

Eilis Ni Dhuibhne uses all her lyricism to pay tribute to the relationship that defined her being.

-- Eileen Battersby * Sunday Times *

'There is much joy here and much sorrow too. ... accompanying Eilis Ni Dhuibhne on her journey, it has been easy to smile along with the good times and impossible not to shed a tear on the other path ... I will treasure my signed copy.'

-- Joe Cushnan * Dropped the Moon Blog *

'Twelve Thousand Days' is indisputably one of the most appealing memoirs from the pen of a contemporary Irish writer.

-- Paddy Kehoe * RTE *



Book Information
ISBN 9781780731735
Author Eilis Ni Dhuibhne
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Blackstaff Press Ltd
Publisher Colourpoint Creative Ltd
Weight(grams) 318g