A haunting love story set against the grim backdrop of fear and violence in Northern Ireland. For Cal, some of the choices are devastatingly simple... He can work in an abattoir that nauseates him or join the dole queue; he can brood on his past or plan a future with Marcella. Springing out of the fear and violence of Ulster, Cal is a haunting love story in a land where tenderness and innocence can only flicker briefly in the dark. Editorial Reviews Review Simple humanity, eloquently caught... Though Cal is a bleak novel, there is a flicker of lyricism running through it, like the sun shining through the shattered windows of a ruined church. --New York Times About the Author BERNARD MacLAVERTY lives in Glasgow. He has written five collections of stories and four novels, including Grace Notes which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award. His most recent story collection, Matters of Life and Death & Other Stories, was published in 2006. He has written versions of his fiction for other media -- radio plays, television plays, screenplays -- and wrote and directed the short film Bye Child which won a BAFTA award.
