This Human Season - Softcover

Dean, Louise

3.52

245 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156035332 ISBN 13: 9780156035330

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2008

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November 1979, the height of Northern Ireland’s Troubles. Kathleen Moran’s son Sean has just been transferred to the hypersecure H-block in Belfast’s notorious Maze prison, where he soon emerges as a young but important force in the extreme protest that political prisoners are staging there. John Dunn is also newly arrived at the prison, having taken on the job of guard—a brutal but effective way to support a house and a girlfriend. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, no one’s dreams go untroubled. As rumors of a hunger strike begin to circulate, Louise Dean’s pitch-perfect novel places two parents, two sons, and two enemies on a collision course that ends in a surprising and deeply resonant climax.

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Review:

‘Breathtaking...This Human Season is a novel that confirms the arrival of a significant voice in British fiction’. The Observer

'Magnificent.' Arena.

‘Not a wasted moment in this terrifying and terribly funny book.' Kirkus Starred Review.

'This is a fine and thoughtful historical novel which manages to find humour and decency in the most awful of places.' The Sunday Times

‘Dean is an audacious arrival in British fiction. She is unafraid to tackle unsexy or unsafe material, or to stray beyond the domestic sphere.’ The Guardian

‘Dean is brave enough to offer the reader a glimpse of real hope...She is also an eloquent architect of the strengths and shapes of passion...Ranging across this desperate landscape is a novel which captures a community’s resilience and it’s humour full of broken glass.’ Ali Smith, Times Literary Supplement

'Louise Dean's pitch-perfect second novel, ''This Human Season,'' recreates the time of the troubles ... With remarkable evenhandedness, she evokes the day-to-day struggles of English and Irish, Protestant and Roman Catholic, as they try to get on with their lives while the world around them goes insane ...' New York Times

'With clear-eyed compassion, and with all the resources of the novelist's art, Louise Dean leads us through those terrible days when for a while Belfast was a vortex for the worst of the world's cruelty and pain' J.M. Coetzee

'Audacious . . . remarkable. That an English woman born after the Troubles began should take one of its most grisly episodes—the 'dirty protests' in the Maze prison—as the focus of a compelling family drama is ambitious to say the least. That she should pull it off with such compassion and perceptive detail is nothing short of astonishing."The Telegraph

'Dean mercilessly heightens the suspense while managing at the same time to confer complexity and even grace on her characters and on their forbidding city.' The Boston Globe

'Dean's great achievement is showing us how ordinary people can go on with their lives in the midst of extraordinary brutality and how a few are able to do so with compassion and hope.' People

'How everyday people become mortal enemies is both the central mystery and tragedy of this intelligent book.' Entertainment Weekly

From the Back Cover:

Praise for THIS HUMAN SEASON

"With clear-eyed compassion, and with all the resources of the novelist's art, Louise Dean leads us through those terrible days when for a while Belfast was the vortex for the worst of the world's cruelty and pain."--J M Coetzee

"Breathtaking . . . [This Human Season] is a novel that confirms the arrival of a significant voice in British fiction."--The Observer Praise for BECOMING STRANGERS "It’s hard to believe that this poignant examination of long marriage is Dean’s first novel, so subtly does she develop the relationships among her characters and so skillfully does she balance delight and despair . . . Dean has produced an ideal novel, right out of the box."—Atlantic Monthly "Dean crafts a gut-wrenching tale of marital recklessness and guilt that is reminiscent of John Updike at his most masterful . . . Her sheer talent takes one's breath away in its rigorous complexity and lyrical dazzle . . . Becoming Strangers is poignant, authentic, funny and extraordinary." --San Francisco Chronicle|Praise for THIS HUMAN SEASON

"With clear-eyed compassion, and with all the resources of the novelist's art, Louise Dean leads us through those terrible days when for a while Belfast was the vortex for the worst of the world's cruelty and pain."--J M Coetzee

"Breathtaking . . . [This Human Season] is a novel that confirms the arrival of a significant voice in British fiction."--The Observer Praise for BECOMING STRANGERS "It’s hard to believe that this poignant examination of long marriage is Dean’s first novel, so subtly does she develop the relationships among her characters and so skillfully does she balance delight and despair . . . Dean has produced an ideal novel, right out of the box."?Atlantic Monthly "Dean crafts a gut-wrenching tale of marital recklessness and guilt that is reminiscent of John Updike at his most masterful . . . Her sheer talent takes one's breath away in its rigorous complexity and lyrical dazzle . . . Becoming Strangers is poignant, authentic, funny and extraordinary." --San Francisco Chronicle

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