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The Secret
The Secret
Nov 29, 2025 9:02 AM

Author:Eva Hoffman

The Secret

"Of course, I've always had a secret. Have I always known it? I suppose I did, in a way - in the way that children know such things. That is, I knew and didn't know." In this novel Eva Hoffman explores various kinds and strata of secrets: intimate secrets, and secrets of family past; the kinds of secrets that can be decoded from clues, and the kind that themselves seem to offer tantalizing clues to the fundamental mysteries of the human selfhood. This is a story about a peculiarly powerful mother-daughter bond and about a haunting, about a young woman's quest for individuation and the challenges posed by contemporary science to our deepest notions of individuality. Using the near future to reflect on the conditions of the present, Hoffman has written a tale that grapples with the oldest riddles of identity, consciousness and self-knowledge - a novel of ideas for our time, and an imaginative fable whose resonances are timeless.

Reviews

A gripping tale of back-stabbing. ****

—— Woman's Own

one of the most original talents in British entertainment

—— Telegraph

A poetry of encounter, of sidelong glances and exuberant strangeness. There will be many pleasures here for Durcan fans and aficionados

—— Paul Perry , Irish Times

Superbly composed, uneasy, desperately witty and often startling… At his best, which he often surpasses in this book, he produces what blue, green and red make when mixed: a pure white light, the noble glow of true praise. In contemporary literature, and not just Irish poetry, Durcan is flying high. Noble may yet become Nobel

—— Brian Lynch , Irish Independent

One of the few genuinely popular poets of recent decades, a vital presence in Irish culture...entertaining, edgy, and with enough ironic self-awareness to make from such quirky subjects more than superficial reflections on his life and times. Durcan is the recording angel who preserves what could be lost, who brings tidings of change in some of the darker moments of history

—— Guardian

He is a prolific poet, and as he nears a venerable three-score years and 10, his prodigious output shows no signs of slowing… There will be many pleasures here for Durcan fans and aficionados

—— Paul Perry , Irish Times

It was mesmerising and spellbinding and deeply affecting each poem received in awed silence

—— Alan Taylor on Paul’s Edinburgh event , Herald

A personal journey through places and people I know

—— Kathleen MacMahon , Irish Times
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