Few and Far Between - by Jan Carson (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From a "deeply talented" (The New York Times Book Review), award-winning writer comes an alternate history of Northern Ireland's recent past where the last remaining residents of a haunted archipelago face imminent eviction from their home.

In 1958, a politician's ludicrous proposal to create a seventh county for Northern Ireland by draining Lough Neagh--the largest lake in Ireland--was, quite understandably, never implemented. In Few and Far Between, Jan Carson imagines a timeline in which the scheme proceeded. When an archipelago emerges from the receding water, a utopian community establishes itself on the islands, hoping to escape the prejudices and dangers of Troubles-era Northern Ireland.

As children in the 1970s, Marion and Robert-John Connolly moved to "The Ark" with their mercurial father, a prominent anthropologist studying this unique community. When the novel opens in 2017, the siblings are among the final few inhabitants. Sheltered from modernity, they work as the Ark's caretakers, monitoring the mysterious Far Side islands where ghostly figures linger and the land swallows secrets whole. A devastating algae outbreak is slowly destroying the landscape they love, but government plans to deal with the crisis by flooding the lough would force them back to the Mainland for the first time in fifty years. When a young anthropologist arrives for field research, the Connollys wonder if this ambitious academic might be the answer to all their problems. Can they keep the Ark from revealing too much of its past?

Written with dark humor and a distinctive Northern voice, Few and Far Between is a novel about family and memory, toxic masculinity and modern womanhood, and the legacy of trauma that offers an illuminating look into the history of a complex place.

Review Quotes

"Few and Far Between is a stunningly original novel told with warmth and humour. The story of an island sanctuary, it celebrates all the joys and challenges of living in a community, and should further cement Carson's reputation as one of the most imaginative and talented Irish writers at work today." --Roisín O'Donnell, author of Nesting

"Jan Carson's understanding of, and love for, complicated human people is unmatched in contemporary literature. In Few and Far Between she turns that canny eye to the long effects of, and attempts to recover from, The Troubles, and what results is her best book yet." --Heather Parry, author of Orpheus Builds a Girl

"Few and Far Between is Jan Carson's most ambitious novel yet--bold in its counter-factual conception, confident in its scope, yet intimate in the knowledge of its characters, all of whom are accorded dignity and a quiet humanity. It's also very, very funny." --Lucy Caldwell, author of These Days

"A joy to read . . . No writer captures the absurdity and beauty of life quite like Jan Carson does, and with this novel she has created something especially prescient, a fictional microcosm that speaks so powerfully about the troubled state of the planet, and of society. I revelled in her attention to detail, to the unexpected, to glorious oddity." --Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither

"Warm, sharp, and gloriously funny, Jan Carson writes exuberant prose about difficult people in interesting times." --Sarah Moss, author of The Ghost Wall

About the Author

Jan Carson is the author of several short story collections and novels including Quickly, While They Still Have Horses; The Raptures; and The Fire Starters, winner of the EU Prize for Literature. She has won the Harper's Bazaar short story competition and been shortlisted for many awards, including the BBC National Short Story Award, the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize, and the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year. Jan is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and her writing has been translated into over a dozen languages, appeared in numerous journals, and been frequently broadcast on BBC Radio. She lives in Belfast.