A stunning novel of longing, memory and abandonment, from one of Ireland's best-loved writers

'With masterful control, Johnston excavates a well of memory and hurt, quietly demonstrating the damage that can be done by families' The Times

A beautifully crafted Irish novel of loss and yearning...

Johnny, an outstanding young swimmer, went missing nearly thirty years ago: drowned, or so everyone except his sister Imogen believes. How could this have happened?

Encouraged and pushed as a child by his father, Johnny could have made the Olympic team, couldn't he? As Imogen gradually pieces together bits of her family history, we hear the tragic echoes that connect her with the Great War and Ireland in the nineteen-twenties.

'Subtle, moving and beautifully constructed' The Sunday Times

What readers say about THIS IS NOT A NOVEL:

'A beautiful novel' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'This is a story told in layers. Like so many other Irish writers the distinctiveness of the place of their birth is never far from the surface' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐