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That They May Face the Rising Sun: Cillian Murphy: 'One of the greatest Irish writers’

John McGahern

Kevin Barry

With a new foreword by Kevin Barry, McGahern's 'timeless' (Sin?ad Gleeson) novel of rural Irish life is perfect for admirers of Claire Keegan.

'I'm grateful for every sentence McGahern left in this world.' Donal Ryan

When the bells rang out for Mass, the strokes trembling on the water, they had the entire world to themselves.

Joe Ruttledge has returned to his native Ireland with his wife Kate. Leaving behind their life in London, the couple begin their new existence on a tranquil lakeside farm. Over a year, they become embedded in the rural community: entwined in the dramas of neighbours, friends and relatives, and immersed in the rhythm of the seasons, work, play, religion - and soon, their little world becomes an Everywhere: a universe in miniature, cast in light and dark.

'Extraordinary.' Colin Walsh
'The preeminent Irish writer of his generation.' Anne Enright
'McGahern's exquisite sentences capture every nuance of elegy, regret, yearning and hope.' Andrew Michael Hurley

  • Classification : General & Literary Fiction
  • Pub Date : OCT 8, 2026
  • Imprint : Faber Fiction
  • Page Extent : 400
  • Binding : PB
  • ISBN : 9780571399499
  • Price : INR 999
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John McGahern

Born in 1934, John McGahern was the eldest of seven children. Raised on a farm in the West of Ireland, he was the son of a Garda sergeant who had served as an IRA volunteer in the Irish War of Independence; his mother died when he was nine. He became a primary school teacher in Dublin but was dismissed when his second novel, The Dark, was banned in 1965 for 'obscene' content. Living subsequently between London, Paris and upstate New York, he and his second wife Madeline Green eventually settled back in his native Leitrim in the early 1970s. The author of six acclaimed novels and four story collections, McGahern was shortlisted for the 1990 Booker Prize for Amongst Women and awarded the Irish PEN Award, the Prix Ecureuil de Litt?rature Etrang?re and the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He died in 2006.

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Kevin Barry

Kevin Barry is the author of the story collections 'Dark Lies The Island' and 'There Are Little Kingdoms' and the novel 'City Of Bohane'. He has been awarded the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the Authors Club Best First Novel Award, and has been shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Prize and the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year. His stories have appeared in the New Yorker, and many other journals and anthologies.

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