About the Author

M.J. HYLAND was born in London in 1968 to Irish parents and spent her early childhood in Dublin. She now lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. Her short stories have been published in Australia, the USA and Ireland. Her first novel, How the Light Gets In, was also published by Canongate.

Reviews

'This is fiction writing of the highest order ... John Egan is a brave, resourceful boy, intelligent and self-aware, yet skating on the edge of madness. The story of John's thirteenth year is both sympathetic and disturbing. It is also rich in understated humour' JM Coetzee "Carry Me Down is uncompromising, unputdownable and done with expert lightness. It's a work of discreet brilliance. M.J.Hyland is a truly gifted writer." Ali Smith

Reminiscent of Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, this work is a worthy successor to Hyland's critically acclaimed first novel, How the Light Gets In. Set in 1972, the novel relates the moving and troubling tale of John Egan's 11th year. Egan lives in Gorey, in southeast Ireland, with his mother, father, and grandmother. They coexist in a tenuous domestic peace threatened by resentment between the adults and Egan's confusion about others' shifting expectations of him. Hyland credibly evokes Egan's agony in a plaintive, perplexed, resolute, and, at times, smug voice. Convinced that he possesses the "gift of lie detection," Egan tests people to prove their truthfulness. Yet he himself stretches the truth in order to defend himself and exert some control over swiftly deteriorating personal circumstances. Egan's truth experiments ultimately culminate in cruelty and violence. Whether his family's love exonerates Egan remains ambiguous, but he does revise his rigid notions of truth to include the necessity of omission and the grace of leaving some things unsaid. Recommended for public and academic libraries. John G. Matthews, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.