I Could Read the Sky

This is a lyrical novel in which the words wind their way through and alongside a sequence of black and white images. It tells the story of a man coming of age in the middle years of the twentieth century, who leaves Ireland for the promise of English wealth. Now, in the last hours of his life, he remembers the sea coasts and potato fields of the West of Ireland, and the factories and building sites of England where he worked. He is haunted by the faces of the family he left behind him, and by the land that is still within him. He remembers the country and the seascapes, the bars and the boxing booths, the music he played and the woman he loved. Timothy O Grady s words and Steve Pyke s atmospheric images combine to reflect the story of the man s life and the process of memory itself.