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"There were two of me: good Catholic Gabriel who wanted to be normal and lead an exemplary life, and dark, degenerate Gabriel who
lived only to lust. Sometimes, in the common room, I'd look out the window and watch the sun disappear behind a wooly, navy-blue cloud, and the cloud's core would stay dark but its ragged edges would be gilded like my unwanted Goddess. That's what I was. I was a gilt-edged cloud with a core of darkness..."
From A Son Called Gabriel
Set in the hills of Northern Ireland during the 1960s and 70s, A Son Called Gabriel is a deeply felt and often funny coming of age novel that is ultimately unforgettable.
Gabriel Harkin, the eldest of four children in a working-class family, struggles through a loving yet often brutal childhood. It's a turbulent time in Ulster, and in the staunchly Catholic community to which Gabriel belongs, the strict code for belief and behavior is clear. As Gabriel begins to suspect that he's not like other boys, he tries desperately to lock away his feelings, and his fears. But secrets have a way of being discovered, and Gabriel learns that his might not be the only one in the Harkin family...
Evoking a sense of time and place as compelling as Angela's Ashes and At Swim, Two Boys, and the courageous spirit of Billy Elliot, Damian McNicholl's A Son Called Gabriel announces the arrival of a striking new literary voice.
Download an excerpt from the book in Adobe Acrobat format.
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Download Damian McNicholl's audio reading, PART 1 and PART 2.
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