
1988
First Published
3.97
Average Rating
210
Number of Pages
Soon after the Anglo-Irish Agreement, when the tension was at a peak in Northern Ireland, Colm Tóibín travelled along the Irish border from Derry to Newry. Bad Blood tells of fear and anger, and of the historical legacy that has imprinted itself on the landscape and its inhabitants. Marches, demonstrations and funerals are the rituals observed by the communities that live along this route. With insight and intelligence Tóibín listens to the stories that are told, and unfolds for the reader the complex unhapiness of this fraught border. ‘Tóibín has the narrative poise of Brian Moore and the patient eye for domestic detail of John McGahern, but he is very much his own man.’ Kate Kellaway, Observer ‘High class reportage...Tóibín was conscientious about talking to real people, not just “names” with a good line in TV chat, and went to see and hear and sense things at a local, grassroots level’ Irish Times
Avg Rating
3.97
Number of Ratings
481
5 STARS
28%
4 STARS
48%
3 STARS
20%
2 STARS
4%
1 STARS
1%
goodreads
Author

Colm Tóibín
Author · 32 books
Colm Tóibín FRSL, is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and poet. Tóibín is currently Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University in Manhattan and succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester.