Minor Monuments by Ian Malaney
"During the final two or three years of his life, I made many surreptitious recordings of John Joe as he sat by the fire. He was in the process of forgetting almost everything he’d ever known. He was fading out of the world and I wanted to record whatever it was he might say before it was too late …" Set around a small family farm on the edge of a bog, a few miles from the river Shannon, Minor Monuments is a collection of essays unfolding from the landscape of the Irish midlands. Taking in the physical and philosophical power of sound and music, and the effects of Alzheimer’s disease on a family, Ian Maleney questions the nature of home, memory, and the complex nature of belonging. A thought-provoking and quietly devastating meditation on family and loss. With echoes of Tim Robinson, Tara Westover and John Berger, Minor Monuments is a beautiful and unique literary experience.
SALLY ROONEY 'Minor Monuments is a beautiful, touching, and extraordinarily intelligent bookI loved every page.’ FINTAN O’TOOLE ‘Minor Monuments is beautifully poised between the vivid recollection of experience and subtle reflections on the nature of memory itself. Ian Maleney writes with both a poetic serenity and a startling immediacy, a combination as rare as it is absorbing.’ EMILIE PINE ‘Honest, thoughtful, ambitious - a portrait of the essayist as a young man.’ LISA MCINERNEY ‘Minor Monuments is brilliant, pulsing with intellect and insight, with each observation composed so beautifully as to be deeply moving. This is the kind of book that changes its reader.’ KEVIN BARRY ‘These essays are thoughtful, precise, beautifully controlled, and with a nicely wry humour helping us along the way - this is an extremely fine debut.’
Ian Maleney is a writer based in Dublin. Born and raised in Co. Offaly, he works as a freelance arts journalist, primarily for the Irish Times , and as the online editor at the Stinging Fly . His essays have been published by Winter Papers, g orse , and the Dublin Review. He is the founder of Fallow Media, an interdisciplinary publication for music, photography, and long-form writing on the internet. Minor Monuments is his debut.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781916434202 |
| ISBN 10 | 1916434207 |
| Title | Minor Monuments |
| Author | Ian Malaney |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Tramp Press |
| Year published | 2019-03-28 |
| Number of pages | 240 |
| Prizes | Short-listed for Michael Deon Prize for Non-Fiction 2019, Short-listed for An Post Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year 2019, Short-listed for The Butler Literary Award 2019 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |