Louise Dean is without doubt a significant new voice in British fiction. Her portrayal of 1979 Ireland at a time when two sides were at loggerheads is immensely powerful. As her well drawn characters from both sides of the divide come together they reveal the almost impossible situation in which they live. Both explosive and controversial the novel portrays one of the blackest moments of British History without being sensationalist.
It is December 1979. Kathleen's son Sean has been convicted of a crime on behalf of the IRA and sent to Long Kesh prison - newly renamed the Maze.
John Dunn has just taken up a job as a prison guard after leaving the army.
Both will be shocked at what they find. Both will try to do the right thing, and fail. Neither will ever be the same again.
Louise Dean's sensational new novel deals with one of the most explosive and morally complex incidents in recent British history. THIS HUMAN SEASON is a powerful, confronting, humane, and blackly funny examination of the lives of ordinary people when placed in the vice of history.
'With clear-eyed compassion, and with all the resources of the novelist's art, Louise Dean leads us through those terrible days when for a while Belfast was the vortex for the worst of the world's cruelty and pain.'
J M Coetzee
'I was gripped - I entered completely into it from the very first page. It is the sort of novel that makes the purpose of fiction clear: to illuminate, not just entertain or display "fine writing"...There are so many things I admire about it that I don't know where to start. With Louise Dean's patience, I think. She doesn't rush things, doesn't go for the obvious dramas straight away, but builds up little by little the tension in the lives of all her characters. And next I think it was her superb handling of dialogue which caught my attention - each voice different, hardly any description needed. But it was the expert shifting of scene that gave the novel its pace ... '
MARGARET FORSTER
'THIS HUMAN SEASON - a meticuloulsy researched, fictionalised account of late 1970s clashes in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison - is sure to establish Dean as a heavyweight talent'
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
Author
About Louise Dean
Louise Dean's first novel, BECOMING STRANGERS, was longlisted for the Man-Booker Prize and won the Betty Trask prize. She lives in France with her husband and three children.
