First published 1994
Francey Sullivan works his shifts in Dublin, but his mind stays fixed on George Gallagher, the actor father who walked out of his life more than twenty years ago. The fantasies started small but grew into something that consumes him. Every day brings the same question: should he make contact? The longing has become obsessive, driving him to imagine conversations they might have and explanations George might offer. Francey feels displaced in his own city, carrying the weight of abandonment wherever he goes. When he finally decides to search for his father, he discovers George had another life entirely. There was a wife, now dead, and family secrets that reshape everything Francey thought he knew about his origins. The revelations force him to confront not just his father's choices, but his own desperate need for connection and the price of living in fantasy rather than facing the complicated truth of family.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, search-for-identity
Setting: Dublin
Period: 20th-century
480 pages · Hardcover · Macmillan