Description
Allen Figgis 1972, Hardback
“THE HALF-BROTHER is the story of a highly imaginative girl living with her father and half-brother in a small village in Ireland. Family relationships come into sharp relief when she discovers that the brother whom she idolises is not her father’s son. In mutual self-protection the two children move through adolescence enjoying a beautiful intimacy, united in their struggle against the hatred and hypocrisy which surrounds them, and unsuspecting that their narrow social circle must one day condemn such love as shocking and sinful. The girl eventually succumbs to the psychological pressures inherent in her situation and the denouement is as inexorable as a Greek tragedy.
It is perhaps the book’s chief merit that fantasy and reality are so skilfully mingled that one soon gives up any attempt to distinguish between the two and accepts them both as essential to the book. It is this blend which presents the story in its full force and complexity and makes, out of what seems highly improbable, a book that is absorbing and totally convincing. THE HALF-BROTHER is a first novel which shows startling imagination and talent and gives promise of great things.”
