The Thing About December

Book excerpt: Set during the Celtic Tiger, this “fierce” novel “[strikes] at the heart of what it has meant to be Irish in recent times”—from the critically acclaimed author of The Spinning Heart (John Boyne, author of The Heart’s Invisible Furies). “One of those beautiful, serious, fully living novels that will make you laugh out loud”—for fans of slice-of-life Irish writers like Claire Keegan and John McGahern (Guardian). While the Celtic Tiger rages, and greed becomes the norm, Johnsey Cunliffe desperately tries to hold on to the familiar, even as he loses those who all his life have protected him from a harsh world. Following the deaths first of his father and then his mother, Johnsey inherits the family farm, and a healthy bank account, both of which he proves incapable of managing on his own. Village bullies and scheming land-grabbers stand in his way, no matter where he turns. Though companionship, and the promise of love, enter his life as a result of a hospital stay following a brutal beating, Johnsey remains a lonely man struggling to keep up with a world that moves faster than he does. Set over the course of one year of Johnsey Cunliffe’s life, The Thing About December breathes with Johnsey's bewilderment, humor and agonizing self-doubt. Readers will fall in love with Johnsey in a bittersweet tale that serves as a poignant reminder that we are surrounded in life by simple souls who are nonetheless more insightful and wise than we realize, or can even imagine.