A classic novel of Ulster life by one of the twentieth centrury's greatest writers.
Sarah Gomartin, the servant girl on Andrew Echlin's farm, bears a child to one of Andrew's sons. But which one?
Her steadfast refusal over many years to 'bend and contrive things' by choosing one of the brothers reverberates through the puritan Ulster community to which she belongs, alienating clergy and neighbours, hastening her mother's death and casting a cold shadow on the lives of her children.
'A Hardyesque story of a tragedy of passion on the shores of Strangford Lough ... perhaps the best novel about Northern Irish life which has yet appeared'
Irish Times
'a quiet, compassionate story'
New York Times
'invested with a disquieting and sullen beauty'
Saturday Review of Literature
Autorentext
Sam Hanna Bell was a novelist, short story writer and playwright. Born in Scotland in 1909 but raised in Raffrey, County Down, he studied at Belfast College of Art. From 1945 to 1969, he was a features producer for the Northern Ireland Home Service (subsequently BBC Radio Ulster). He died in 1990. His first collection of short stories, Summer Loanen, was published in 1943. His novels include The Hollow Ball (1961), A Man Flourishing (1973) and Across the Narrow Sea (1987). His best-loved novel is December Bride. A brilliant film adaptation of the novel starring Donal McCann was released in Irish cinemas in 1990.