Book Description

Australia is the Lucky Country, and Joey Driscol knows it. It's a far cry from his native Ireland, but he believes this is the place he and his wife Shauna can make a new life and forget the troubles of the past. For a time, they do just that, and soon welcome their son Marti into the family. But as the years pass, this new life thousands of miles from the Old Country comes under threat. Joey's wife has been struggling with demons of her own, their marriage is on the rocks and suddenly, Shauna disappears and takes Marti with her. Joey is beside himself, with no clues about where they are, with both his childhood sweetheart and his son - his pride and joy - now missing. Then, when Joey gets word that his wife and son have returned to Ireland, he knows that he'll now have to do the same if he ever wants to see them again. And he also knows that he'll finally have to confront the ghosts of his past that he's been running from for years. His Father's Son is a touching and beautiful story of a family struggling to come to terms with their past, their present and an uncertain future. REVIEWS "A beautiful, powerful tale to move the hardest heart." THE SUN "Black put his heart and soul into this, and the very personal, cathartic nature of the novel makes it a hard one to put down." THE HERALD "The book is set in the late 1970s but the language is a timeless [Irish] brogue that seeps out of the dialogue and internal monologues to colour the narrative emerald green." THE GUARDIAN "Heartfelt and incredibly moving, the sins of the fathers are confronted in a narrative that seethes with raw, blistering emotions." THE DAILY RECORD "This is a tale of father and son, man and wife, and how a journey to be reunited can mean rediscovering part of yourself that was buried long ago - and Black tells it perfectly." SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY "A thought-provoking novel about family and roots ... always compelling and deftly draws the reader into the world of childhood and its life-long impact." THE PRESS & JOURNAL "Beautifully written, threaded through with poignant humour and cross-generational angst, Black gets to the beating heart of what makes families tick and the burdens and baggage they inherit." LANCASHIRE EVENING POST "A moving and evocative tale, a heartfelt examination of the bond between fathers and sons, and about the baggage one generation passes on to the next." DOUG JOHNSTONE, author of Gone Again "Soulful and stunningly written, this reads like a future classic." LISA JEWELL