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by Lucy Dillon
Gina
Bellamy doesn’t expect to find herself moving to a new flat to start life
alone in her thirties, but after discovering her husband, Stuart, has been
having an affair, that’s exactly the position she finds herself in. The
premise of this novel is really one to make you stop and think: what 100
items are most important to you? How do they define you? What do they say
about your life? And is it really the objects that count or the memories they
hold? Lucy Dillon pieces together the narrative from various fragments
masterfully, gradually unearthing the numerous mysteries of Gina's life.
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Promising debut author discusses the literary influences on
his fictional look at the Chernobyl disaster
Ten
years in the writing, Darragh McKeon’s novel All That Is Solid
Melts Into Air (the title is a quote from The Communist Manifesto)
is a substantial novel, beautifully crafted, but also replete with human
drama and the shocking resonance of real events. Set primarily in the
immediate aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, it traces the intertwined
lives of six characters, including Yevgeni, a nine-year-old piano prodigy in
Moscow; his aunt Maria, a journalist repressed for her samizdat writings; and
her estranged husband Grigory, a gifted surgeon dispatched by the authorities
to work on the medical frontline of the unfolding catastrophe. Born in 1979
in County Offaly, Ireland, McKeon was only seven when the Chernobyl disaster
occurred. “When I talk about my book in Ireland, people relate to it
immediately. It’s still a very present issue there".
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