Grace's Day

A genuine literary talent, with a poet's gift for apposite, wry observation, dialogue and character * Guardian *
[Wall] is a powerful writer... The prose style is punchy and accessible' -- Justine McCarthy, Irish Independent
A terrific novel... Stares directly at the dark side of contemporary Ireland without looking away, or even blinking' -- David Means
It's this mood of lives irreparably spoiled that make this bitter-tasting tale so potent * Daily Mail *
On both story and style it doesn't disappoint... Wall unfolds his story with a controlled prose, his poetical skills shining throughout' * Evening Echo *
A novel about a family "on the cusp of desolation" and so pervasive and oppressive is the climate of unrelenting misery, it's close to miraculous that the Cork novelist succeeds in crafting something as compelling as Grace's Day. That he succeeds is a testimony to his immense skill as a writer. At a time when neophytes are routinely showered with praise, it's time to appreciate an underrated veteran at the peak of his powers * Sunday Times *
Wall writes with a lightly worn and beautiful lyricism... A strong and knowing meditation on the tyranny of writers, whose work hinges on an uneasy balance of engagement and self-preserving distance. As the novel draws to a close, and it is another character's turn to pick up their pen, its hard to know whether we should fear, or pity or applaud them' * Sunday Business Post *
Beautifully written novel about how a family, living on an island off the west coast as a kind of 'social experiment', deal with the tyranny of an often absent and neglectful father and the loss of a sibling * Meath Chronicle *
Symphonic in form but written with classical simplicity, Grace's Day is a novel about love and loss, the natural world, and the violent complications of family life. As the great John McGahern used to say, there's verse, and there's prose, and then there's poetry; William Wall is a poet in both mediums -- John Banville, Irish Independent, Books of the Year.