Goosefoot

Patrick McGinley is able to do what few novelists can: write stories and characters that are drenched in place (specifically, rural Ireland), and yet totally devoid of cheap sentimentality. His landscapes have the edgy, ludicrous beauty of a dream - unstable and prone to capsize into nightmare. Goosefoot is such a story - the tale of a tough, smart farm girl who moves to the city, and the temptations that befall and ultimately destroy her. This is the story in a nutshell, and yet the details are what make it wonderful: the bitterly funny characters and the luminous, witty dialogue that carries them from one misadventure to another. One of the handful of novels that gets better with each reading.