The Stray Sod Country: A Novel

Patrick McCabe

Oct 2010 · Bloomsbury Publishing USA

About this ebook

It is 1958, and as Laika, the Sputnik dog, is launched into space, Golly Murray, the Cullymore barber's wife, finds herself oddly obsessing about the canine cosmonaut. Meanwhile, Fonsey "Teddy" O'Neill is returning, like the prodigal son, from overseas, with Brylcreem in his hair and a Cuban-heeled swagger to his step, having experienced his coming-of-age in Skegness, England. Father Augustus Hand is working on a bold new theatrical production for Easter, which he, for one, knows will put Cullymore on the map. And, as the Manchester United football team prepares to take off from Munich airport, James A. Reilly sits in his hovel by the lake outside town, with his pet fox and his father's gun, feeling the weight of an insidious and inscrutable presence pressing down upon him.

As these imperiled characters wrestle with their identities, mysteriously powerful narrator plucks, gently, at the strings of their fates, and watches the twitching response. This novel is a devil's-eye view of a lost era, a sojourn to the dark side of our past, one we may not have come back from. With echoes of Peyton Place and Fellini's Amarcord, and with a sinister narrator at its heart, this is at once a story of a small town-with its secrets, fears, friendships, and betrayals-and a sweeping, theatrical extravagance from one of the finest writers of his generation.

Ratings and reviews

"The Stray Sod Country", is an odd, oddly written story. It takes place primarily in 1958 Cullymore, Ireland. The townspeople are superstitious...and rightly so. Their most secret thoughts are being stirred and manipulated by an unseen, malevolent entity. And a very patient one. This malign force will at times take years to finish tormenting his puppets but then when he's done, he takes them away with a pleasant memory. How nice of him. He goes by many names but I see him as a very twisted reaper. I liked this book, but I didn't love it. And now I find myself peering deeper into the shadows and looking over my shoulder.

About the author

Patrick McCabe was born in Clones, Co Monaghan, Ireland, in 1955. His novels include Carn; The Dead School; The Butcher Boy, winner of the Irish Times/Aer Lingus Literature Prize, shortlisted for the 1992 Booker Prize and made into a highly acclaimed film directed by Neil Jordan; Breakfast on Pluto, also shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Winterwood, winner of the Irish Novel of the Year 2007 and, most recently, The Holy City. He lives in Clones.