The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth
Published on 30. January 2025
978-1-80522-195-1 (ISBN)
Description
AN IRISH INDEPENDENT AND IRISH TIMES BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2025
'An original voice' Colm Toibin
'Duncan brings a new way of seeing' Irish Times
'A deliberative and delicate reading experience, revelatory in the truest sense of that word' Guardian
During winter season in a secluded Alpine city, John Molloy, an Irish restorative sculptor, meets Bernadette, an enigmatic Italian sociologist. As John falls in love, a distressing moment from his youth rises into view, the disastrous fallout of which has reverberated unchecked through his life.
Years later, a letter from home arrives, asking him to pray for the speedy death of an ailing friend. Over a day-long odyssey through the ancient streets and churches of Bologna, John is forced to confront his present, his past and the bedrock of his psyche. A delicately crafted novel of two halves, a decade apart, The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth is a masterful excavation of human desires, inhibitions, and the patterns of habit to which we unwittingly fall prey.
'An original voice' Colm Toibin
'Duncan brings a new way of seeing' Irish Times
'A deliberative and delicate reading experience, revelatory in the truest sense of that word' Guardian
During winter season in a secluded Alpine city, John Molloy, an Irish restorative sculptor, meets Bernadette, an enigmatic Italian sociologist. As John falls in love, a distressing moment from his youth rises into view, the disastrous fallout of which has reverberated unchecked through his life.
Years later, a letter from home arrives, asking him to pray for the speedy death of an ailing friend. Over a day-long odyssey through the ancient streets and churches of Bologna, John is forced to confront his present, his past and the bedrock of his psyche. A delicately crafted novel of two halves, a decade apart, The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth is a masterful excavation of human desires, inhibitions, and the patterns of habit to which we unwittingly fall prey.
Reviews / Votes
One of the most important and intriguing writers working now -- Niamh Campbell, author of This Happy Uncanny, strange and exquisite, akin to the fictions of Laszlo Krasznahorkai * Financial Times * The kind of work that makes you remember why you read * Sunday Business Post * A deliberative and delicate reading experience, revelatory in the truest sense of that word * Guardian * Duncan again shows his skill at crafting characters who feel sympathetic even if you have little or nothing in common with them, and evocatively depicts Italy without the results coming off as picture postcard-y * Buzz Magazine * This captivating fiction is a moving tribute to making, in all its forms * Irish Times * An umbrageous, pinging novel, its maker adept * Dublin Review of Books *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Profile Books Ltd
Product notice
Reflowable
ISBN-13
978-1-80522-195-1 (9781805221951)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Adrian Duncan is an Irish artist and writer who originally trained as a structural engineer. Duncan was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize in 2023, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award in 2023 and 2021, longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize in 2021 and won the John McGahern Book Prize in 2020.
