The First Day
A profound exploration of love, family, and personal legacy.
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Little, Brown Book Group
Published:15th Jun '17
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
In this thought-provoking novel, The First Day delves into the intricate dynamics of love, family, and the impact of past choices.
In The First Day, the narrative unfolds in east Belfast, where pastor Samuel Orr encounters Anna, a passionate Beckett scholar. Their meeting ignites a fervent love affair, one that intertwines their lives through shared intellectual pursuits and emotional depths. However, the bliss of their connection is soon overshadowed by the reality of Anna's unexpected pregnancy, leading to a revelation that shatters both their worlds. The consequences of their actions are not immediate but grow in intensity, revealing the cruel and violent repercussions that ensue from their choices.
Fast forward over thirty years, and we meet Sam, the son born from this tumultuous relationship, now living in New York. He has built a life that is steady and guarded, carefully distancing himself from the shadows of his past. Yet, despite his attempts to abandon his childhood and family ties, the ghosts of his parents' actions linger, reminding him that the sins of the fathers cannot be easily forgotten or buried.
As the narrative unfolds, Sam is compelled to confront the deeply rooted fears and unresolved issues that have shaped his existence. The First Day is a poignant exploration of the complexities of love, the weight of familial legacy, and the inevitable collision of past and present, inviting readers to reflect on the choices that define us and the scars they leave behind.
Terrific, it is expanding and expanding all the time, like its own model universe - I just think it is pretty marvellous -- Sebastian Barry
Set in a defamiliarised Belfast, The First Day is an auspicious debut - crisp, spare, lean and compelling -- Patrick McCabe, author of The Butcher Boy
The First Day is an age-old story of forbidden love, given fresh resonance against the backdrop of the fractured, changing but still deeply conservative society that is contemporary Northern Ireland.
Phil Harrison writes with compassion and tenderness, never veering into sentimentality, about his young Beckett scholar and the married pastor she falls in love with. He has a screenwriter's ear for the way people talk, the cadences and omissions of their speech, and in particular the speech of religious Ulster, still rooted so deeply in the language and rhythms of the King James Bible. He illuminates a people - a place - seeking to escape from itself, seeking transfiguration, but desperately bound to what has gone before
In true Belfast style, Phil Harrison has planted a flag. The First Day is not just a novel, it's a declaration, full worthy of salute -- Glenn Patterson
Written with a burning intensity, this is a powerful novel about marriage, passion, anger and guilt * Daily Mail *
Hugely impressive. A finely written tale which is original, compulsive, and at times chilling * Irish Examiner *
A wonderful debut. A fully engaging, well-written, very imaginative novel * Irish Times *
This is a truly excellent novel, on all counts . . . an unflinching yet compassionate investigation of matters of the human heart . . . [a] fine work of artistic invention * Irish Independent *
Harrison writes well and brings Belfast and the sectarian conflict vividly to life * Catholic Herald *
Gripping . . . This is a truly excellent novel, on all counts. The First Day is as well-written as any Irish novel I've read, with tight, dispassionate and superbly controlled prose * Belfast Telegraph *
Deeply disturbing, morally challenging . . . remarkable * Publishers Weekly *
The First Day is a stark and spare story of a family divided . . . a stark and spare story of a family divided * Sunday Business Post *
Filmic in its scope and intensity . . . I hope we're in for more from this striking new voice in fiction -- Jamie Quatro, author of Fire Sermon * Guardian *
Written with a burning intensity, this is a powerful novel about marriage, passion, anger and guilt. -- Fanny Blake * Daily Mail *
Hugely impressive. A finely written tale which is original, compulsive, and at times chilling -- Sue Leonard * Irish Examiner *
ISBN: 9780708898550
Dimensions: 223mm x 144mm x 22mm
Weight: 346g
224 pages