Cal
Bernard MacLaverty(Author)
Vintage Classics (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 5. November 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
176 pages
978-1-80784-514-8 (ISBN)
Description
A haunting story of love and division against the backdrop of the Troubles: an Irish modern classic.
Cal is a Catholic boy on a Protestant estate. His Ulster is a violent world in the grip of fear, a land where tenderness flickers only briefly in the dark. As Cal becomes guiltily entangled with local IRA activities, he also meets Marcella, a librarian - and a Protestant. Cal's choices are devastatingly simple: brood on the past, or try to plan a future with the woman he loves?
'Simple humanity, eloquently caught' New York Times
'McLaverty has a true feeling for tragedy' Anita Brookner
Cal is a Catholic boy on a Protestant estate. His Ulster is a violent world in the grip of fear, a land where tenderness flickers only briefly in the dark. As Cal becomes guiltily entangled with local IRA activities, he also meets Marcella, a librarian - and a Protestant. Cal's choices are devastatingly simple: brood on the past, or try to plan a future with the woman he loves?
'Simple humanity, eloquently caught' New York Times
'McLaverty has a true feeling for tragedy' Anita Brookner
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-80784-514-8 (9781807845148)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Person
Bernard MacLaverty lives in Glasgow. He has written five previous collections of stories and five novels, including Grace Notes, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Midwinter Break, the Bord Gais Energy Irish Novel of the Year. He has written versions of his fiction for other media - radio and television plays, screenplays and libretti.