Cal

by Bernard MacLaverty

Overview

"Bernard MacLaverty’s powerful novel is a love story as affecting and tragic as you could want." —USA TodayWhen it was first published, Bernard MacLaverty’s masterpiece was hailed by Michael Gorra in theNew York Times Book Reviewas "a marvel of technical perfection…a most moving novel whose emotional impact is grounded in a complete avoidance of sentimentality…[It] will become thePassage to India of the Troubles.” For Cal, a Northern Irish teenager who, against his will, is involved in the terrible war between Catholics and Protestants, some of the choices are devastatingly simple: he can work in the slaughterhouse that nauseates him or join the dole line; he can brood on his past or plan a future with the beautiful, widowed Marcella for whose grief he shares more than a little responsibility.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393354683
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/22/2017
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	178,614
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Bernard MacLaverty lives in Glasgow, Scotland. His books include Lamb, Cal, and Grace Notes, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year Award.

Editorial Reviews

A formidable fictional triumph.

Observer

Miraculously vivid precision…[MacLaverty] is a born novelist.

Spectator

To fashion a short, telling novel out of the hideous complexities of Northern Ireland takes narrative skill of a high order. In Cal Bernard MacLaverty has managed to do it superbly.”

Daily Telegraph

Cal is a hard, dark gemstone of a book.”

Cleveland Plain Dealer

First published in 1983, this lyrical novel, superficially straightforward but full of stories within stories, first brought Bernard MacLaverty's work to public attention. In the novel, a young Irish Republican Army operative who wants to break the cycle of violence seeks out a woman whose Ulster policeman husband he helped to murder. As their relationship grows, so do Cal's guilt and sorrow, until, in the end, he is forced to make a sacrifice of himself in order to gain redemption. Rich in ideas and history, this book helps us understand the situation in Northern Ireland--which "is not just there," MacLaverty has remarked, "as a colorful background."

History Editor

Powerful...Cal is a love story as affecting and tragic as you could want...as finely crafted as a short story. -- USA Today

Robert Wilson

A most moving novel whose emotional impact is grounded in a complete avoidance of sentimentality... -- The New York Times

Michael Gorra

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