The Long Falling Hardcover - 1998

From the publisher

A brilliant portrayal of a woman pushed to the edge, The Long Falling movingly explores the distance between a mother and her son, between a woman and her community, and between longing and belonging. Grace Quinn is an Englishwoman who has lived her entire adult life in rural Ireland but is still an outsider. Isolated by religion and circumstance, she endures an abusive husband -- who blames her for the death of their young son some twenty years earlier -- and an increasingly estranged relationship with her surviving son, Martin, whose open homosexuality her husband refuses to accept. Through a series of ill-fated events, Grace is emboldened to commit an act of desperation. Reeling in the aftermath, haunted by doubt and denial, she seeks out Martin in Dublin. There she is pursued by the police and an ambitious newspaper reporter. Confused about where to turn and whom to trust, she is cornered -- and what unfolds is an uncompromising examination of the complex nature of love, fear, and betrayal. The Long Falling is a powerful debut novel that is certain to establish Keith Ridgway as one of the most promising writers to emerge from Ireland in recent years.