With a synopsis to entice any fan of a good mystery, Eoghan Smith’s A Provincial Death certainly does that. The book’s protagonist – Smyth, a researcher studying the Moon – wakes up to discover he is stranded alone on a rock in the Irish Sea. As he ponders how he got there, his memory slowly starts to return and he recalls that his boss, McGovern, predicted that the Moon will one day collide with the Earth. Unfortunately, he also remembers that that day is today…
Whilst this could easily be passed off as a conventional disaster novel, Smith puts the impending end-of-the-world scenario in the background and, instead, brings forward the internal struggle that Smyth suffers as he tries to piece together the fragments of his memory and work out what brought him to this rock. Eoghan Smith’s writing is pure poetry in places, to the point of being disconcerting – but the mix of dark humour and mystery makes for a wonderful read which, at 154 pages long, can also be consumed in one decent sitting.
A Provincial Death, Eoghan Smith (Dedalus)
Price: £9.99. Info: here
words CHRIS ANDREWS
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