72. The Gathering by Anne Enright

Winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize, this is Enright’s fourth book. Covering three generations of a large Irish Catholic family, the novel mostly explores what happens to Veronica Hegarty when her brother, Liam, commits suicide. Liam had escaped Dublin and his large, dominating family (his mother gave birth to twelve children and had seven miscarriages), but had become addicted to alcohol later in life. Found with stones in his pocket in the sea at Brighton, Veronica must travel to England to bring his body back to Ireland. During the trip and subsequent funeral, Veronica wrestles with the memory of a childhood secret Liam shared with her over thirty years ago.

Extremely dream like, this is a difficult novel to read, but worth the struggle. Enright’s writing is very poetic, original, and raw. Veronica struggles to understand her family, including her grandmother’s possible inappropriate relationship with a family friend, and why she is growing distant to her own husband and two daughters. For readers who enjoy Charles Baxter and Ali Smith.