by Celia Filipetto, Donal Ryan
First published 2013
Johnsey Cunliffe is a simple, slow-witted man suddenly alone after his parents' deaths, adrift in rural Ireland. Inherited farmland becomes a target for local speculators and developers eager to transform his family's property, while townspeople alternately mock and manipulate him. As property values surge and economic pressures mount, Johnsey struggles to understand the rapid changes around him, becoming both prey and potential beneficiary of a landscape transforming faster than he can comprehend. Each interaction reveals his vulnerability—social, economic, and emotional—as he tries to maintain his tenuous place in a community that sees him as both burden and opportunity. Beneath the surface, Johnsey's quiet resilience becomes his most potent defense against a world intent on reshaping his inheritance.
Genres: literary-fiction, family-life, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, small-town
Setting: Ireland, Tipperary
208 pages · Paperback · Black Swan Ireland