Author:Paul Durcan
Famous for his electrifying poetry readings, Paul Durcan marks four decades of composing silently and reciting aloud with this magnificent collection, which brings together for the first time the critically acclaimed poet's own choice of his work from his first book, Endsville (1967), to The Laughter of Mothers (2007). Life is a Dream represents the whole range of Durcan's writing - funny and subversive verse narratives and self-mocking poems of underachievement; poems celebrating love and sex or the lives of famous writers and artists; as well as tender, poignant verses commemorating the dead.
Throughout his long career, Durcan has continued to make passionate and moving poetry out of his own and his country's misfortunes. He is by turns a surrealist, a mystic, an Irish comedian with perfect comic timing and an angry champion of the oppressed. Life is a Dream reaffirms the constant vision and artistic integrity of one of the most powerful, humane and original voices in modern poetry.
Life is a Dream finally presents the evidence of major artistic achievement in a single, unified text.
—— Harry Clifton , Irish TimesThe world is all the richer for this man's verse.
—— Irish IndependentPaul Durcan's Ireland is the one we inhabit. At times he is ready to celebrate the bizarre and the ordinary; at other times he is full of a surreal rage against both order and disorder.
—— Colm Tóibín , Times Literary SupplementTo have heard him read adds another pleasure to the reading of his work - but the voice speaks clearly on the page in poems of harrowing intimacy, politics and love
—— Carol Ann Duffy , GuardianDurcan is a God. He can break your heart in supermarket or petrol station. He is unafraid, masterful and exactly what this world needs more of: wild abandon, wild love and sheer mad genius.
—— Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely BonesPaul Durcan's poetry sings
—— Roger McGoughSusan Hill is the mistress of subtle atmosphere
—— Country LifeMoving study of faith and humanity
—— Sara Keating , Sunday Business Post, IrelandBeautiful novel
—— Sainsbury's MagazineA bittersweet family drama set in an English industrial town
—— Katie Owen , Sunday TelegraphRichly satisfying
—— IndependentThe closest thing I can compare it to is The Secret History by Donna Tart.
—— IndependentRachel Heath is excellent on the atmosphere of post-war Britain and the lure of South Africa.
—— IndependentThis author is good at sex, writing well about female sensuality.
—— IndependentThe interweaving of the lives of Gay and Laura is skilfully handled, the plot ever-thickening as the two move towards that fatal voyage back to Britain.
—— IndependentRachel Heath's dark compelling debut novel tells the tale of two very different girls; both are misfits trying to find a story in which they can star.
—— Daily Mail... examines the extraordinary lengths people will go to when driven by love.
—— Easy LivingThose who survive do dreadful things. This is the nub of their experiences and also, hints the author of our own.
—— The Sunday TimesA highly accomplished debut, this is a chilling portrait of racial tension, social immorality, betrayal and love, and also an atmospheric examination of the end of innocence.
—— The Lady MagazineThe writing is strong and though the sections featuring Gay's earlier life lose momentum, the story picks up pace when the girls' paths become entwined and the conclusion is compelling and thrillingly macabre.
—— TelegraphThis fictional account of a true story gives a darkly shocking version of the events surrounding this tragic case.
—— Good Book GuideBrilliantly melds a factual post-war murder into a dark fictional tale
—— Telegraph
zpostcode
Recruit
weather
mreligion
Yellowpages
sport
constellation
shopping
name
game
directory
literature
Word
tour
furnish
Lottery
tftnews
lyrics
News
digital
car
dir
Edu
Finance
