An Apology for Roses
€14.95
The story of Marie Fogerty, a young girl caught between two lovers, exposes the social and religious hypocrisy of an Irish town in the 1970s. Marie has grown dissatisfied with her affair with Fr Tom Moran, a loveless relationship condoned by her parents, observed by the town, and borne from mutual listlessness. However, the arrival of Brian Langley, a salesman from Galway, offers Marie glimpses of a new and passionate life. Brian’s suspicions about Marie’s past loves, and the dwindling health of Marie’s father threaten to tear apart a relationship that stands outside of a small town’s social norms. A meditation on love and possession, ‘An Apology for Roses’ remains as relevant today as it was when it first appeared in print.
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First published in 1973 and swiftly banned, John Broderick's An Apology for Roses returns as one of the most audacious portraits of provincial Ireland ever written. Set in a midlands town where respectability masks obsession, corruption and thwarted desire, the novel follows the intersecting lives of Marie Fogarty - clever, restless, dangerously sure of her own charm - and Father Tom Moran, the charismatic curate drawn into her orbit. Around them spin the claustrophobic rituals of family, gossip, religion and commerce: suffocating drawing?rooms heated to excess, whispered devotions, clandestine meetings in lakeside chalets, nights of hunger, fear, exhilaration and betrayal.
Broderick exposes the hypocrisies of Irish Catholic life with wit, psychological acuity and a fearless eye for the erotic and the grotesque. A novel banned in its own time for its frankness, An Apology for Roses stands now as a darkly glittering masterpiece, bold, unsettling, and unforgettably alive.
Additional information
| Weight | 401 g |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 19.8 × 12.9 cm |
| Book_author | Broderick, John |
| Publisher | The Lilliput Press |
| Imprint | The Lilliput Press |
| Cover | Paperback |
| Pages | 224 |
| Language | English |
| Edition | Reprint |
| Dewey | 823.914 (edition:23) |
| Readership | General – Trade / Code: K |
