STONE KINGDOMS

A brave and ambitious novel set in Ireland and Africa, and a definitive comment on the Ulster struggles written by David Park, born in Belfast in 1953. The explorations of the protagonist's childhood in Donegal are moving. Haunted by the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and trapped in a land between the mountains and the sea, Naomi dreams of another life far away from the rainy sands of Donegal. When she moves to work in a refugee camp in the burning heat of Africa, she exchanges the city streets of Belfast for the arid desert. But before she leaves behind the land where she was born, escaping her past is not so easy. A powerful novel about guilt and absolution. 278pp, paperback.