Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Thursday, October 17, 2024

Synopsis...

Does this work as a synopsis for Home Not Home? Is it extensive enough? Not too short?

----------

April 1981

The hunger strike has been underway for a month and Northern Ireland is in turmoil. Brendan would avoid it all, but he learns his mother is terminally ill and is told she wants to see him. So he returns to Derry under an assumed name only to find that she is actually still antagonistic to him. 

His younger sister, Maeve, is caring for her while also working for peace; his younger brother, Rhuari, is married and keeping himself as much out of the back and forth with the Army, as possible; while his youngest brother, Kieran, despises him and is in gleeful full-on confrontation with the Brits and RUC. What is worse, his older brother, Eamonn, is in the Maze prison, and Ma is pushing for him to add his name to the growing list of hunger strikers.

Brendan stays to help Maeve, who is stretched to her limit, while trying to keep as low a profile as possible. But his mother’s ramblings while under the effect of Percocet make him want to learn more about her and his father, leading him to a new possibility as to why the man was murdered.

He also learns Joanna might still be alive but no one will verify it or help him find out for himself.

Then Bobby Sands dies. Derry erupts in fury, and Brendan finds himself caught up in the chaos of the times as the British Army comes looking for him.

No comments: