- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; First Edition edition (4 Feb 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747591296
- ISBN-13: 978-0747591290
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.2 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 371,609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Truth Commissioner
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'It's a magnificent novel and I can't stop thinking about it.'
--Joseph O'Connor
--Joseph O'Connor
Review
Praise for SWALLOWING THE SUN: 'Line for line, it is hard to think of a more skilful contemporary Irish novelist. He shares with John McGahern a refusal of cheap flamboyance, with Dermot Bolger a sense of suppressed fury. Flawed, brilliant, knotty, uncompromising, this is not an easy novel, but it is an important and beautiful one' Joseph O'Connor, Guardian 'David Park is of a similar generation, but for me has always stood apart from his contemporaries with a cool and beautifully poised style that renders the most ordinary moments into perfectly measured prose ... It's gripping and deeply memorable ... This is a superb novel' Dermot Bolger 'I loved this book. Technically brilliant and emotionally powerful, Swallowing the Sun thrills even as it breaks your heart' Glenn Patterson Praise for THE HEALING: 'The beauty of Park's work lies in the simplicity of the telling, the exquisiteness of his language and a blazing tension ... He is, one feels, interested in the truth' Irish Independent
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A truly excellent book.
A fictional Truth Commission is set up to examine Northern Ireland's troubled past. It is headed up by a particularly unsavoury character whose main aim is to get the job done, get out of Northern Ireland and then reap any benefits which may come his way. A retired RUC officer, a government minister with an IRA past and a young man living in America all have links to a missing boy who vanished during the height of the Troubles. Each character has attempted to put their past behind them and create a new life. However, the formation of the Truth Commission means they are now called to account for the past; a past which they had hoped had vanished also. Each character is shadowed by guilt, fear, self-justification or the need for atonement to a greater or lesser degree. Will the stirring of the waters bring freedom from a terrible past or simply a muddying of the waters? This book provokes many questions and not just in the context of Northern Ireland; you need no knowledge of or interest in the place to be dazzled by this book.
All of David Park's books are brilliant and thought-provoking. There is a simplicity in his style of writing that belies the power behind his work.
A fictional Truth Commission is set up to examine Northern Ireland's troubled past. It is headed up by a particularly unsavoury character whose main aim is to get the job done, get out of Northern Ireland and then reap any benefits which may come his way. A retired RUC officer, a government minister with an IRA past and a young man living in America all have links to a missing boy who vanished during the height of the Troubles. Each character has attempted to put their past behind them and create a new life. However, the formation of the Truth Commission means they are now called to account for the past; a past which they had hoped had vanished also. Each character is shadowed by guilt, fear, self-justification or the need for atonement to a greater or lesser degree. Will the stirring of the waters bring freedom from a terrible past or simply a muddying of the waters? This book provokes many questions and not just in the context of Northern Ireland; you need no knowledge of or interest in the place to be dazzled by this book.
All of David Park's books are brilliant and thought-provoking. There is a simplicity in his style of writing that belies the power behind his work.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A book of this time, examining the place of truth as Northern Ireland deals with its past
12 Feb 2008
Format:Hardcover
David Park has struck it lucky. Northern Ireland is sitting at the painted give way line waiting to drive out onto the roundabout of dealing with our past. Yet everyone is wondering what exit to take, what road we should journey down to try to uncover the truth behind events in the conflict. It's a good moment to be reading David Park's latest novel The Truth Commissioner as it rehearses one of the possible ways forward.
After learning about the four main characters, the book enters it's well-paced final section where the best laid plans in the truth process come unstuck. So many fragments of Northern Ireland's past: informers, the Disappeared, bugging, securocrats.
The book asks questions about truth. What it is? And at what price? It's a great book. A book of this time and of this place, Northern Ireland. Well worth reading for the story, as well as the ideas that will encountered in society at large over the next couple of years.
After learning about the four main characters, the book enters it's well-paced final section where the best laid plans in the truth process come unstuck. So many fragments of Northern Ireland's past: informers, the Disappeared, bugging, securocrats.
The book asks questions about truth. What it is? And at what price? It's a great book. A book of this time and of this place, Northern Ireland. Well worth reading for the story, as well as the ideas that will encountered in society at large over the next couple of years.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I enjoyed reading this book. It is really well written, with believable characters and makes important and perceptive points about the human impact of the move from conflict to peace in Northern Ireland. So why only 3 stars?
In part it is that it just felt too short. Once I had got to know the protagonists there seemed to be a sudden rush towards the end of the book, with the slow satisfying development of character in the first half overtaken by an apparent rush to tie up the plot ends.
As a result it just has not lingered in my mind in the way I thought it would when I was reading it.
In part it is that it just felt too short. Once I had got to know the protagonists there seemed to be a sudden rush towards the end of the book, with the slow satisfying development of character in the first half overtaken by an apparent rush to tie up the plot ends.
As a result it just has not lingered in my mind in the way I thought it would when I was reading it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
At last, a truthful novel about Northern Ireland
A deeply truthful novel on all levels. This literary and literate novel is written with humanity and compassion and ought to have been more widely publicised and read. Read more
Published on 27 Feb 2010 by La Bella Roma
A subtle, human novel
David Park is a much underrated writer, and it was no surprise to see The Truth Commissioner passed over by the Booker Committee. Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2008 by MisterHobgoblin
Somehow slightly unsatisfying
Don't get me wrong. It's a very good book, but I wanted another ten pages to expand on the ending, which was rushed and chaotic, a reflection of the way the book ends. Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2008 by Ms. M. Moules
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