Niall Griffiths

The search for meaning

His long awaited new novel explores, in exquisite detail, parenthood, violence, the loss of love and the search for meaning

issue 19 August 2017

He’s not what you’d call prolific, Bernard MacLaverty. Midwinter Break is his fifth novel in 40 years, and his first in 16. And, in that time, it could be argued that Irish writers have moved away from his bare and declarative style into the wildness of, say, a Barry or a Barrett or a Baume; word-typhoons, of an affinity with the febrile and fervid times.

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