Love

Two old friends reconnect in Dublin for a dramatic, revealing evening of confidences and catching up in this captivating new book from the author of the Booker Prize-winning Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. David and Joe meet for dinner on the north side of Dublin. Davy left Ireland 25 years earlier after getting married–he and his wife putting some distance between themselves and their parents. Joe also married, but stayed in Dublin, and is now a father with an estranged wife and children. As their evening together begins Joe tells David about an encounter he has had with a woman from their past. Jessica was a gorgeous, elusive acquaintance from their twenties, with whom they both were half in love, mostly from afar. Joe explains how a chance encounter in a high school hallway has led to the dissolution of his marriage, and all that implies, and Davy listens, barely suppressing a rush of emotions–rage, curiosity, repulsion and envy. As the evening wears on numerous rounds follow–each pair of pints the last they’ll have for the night–and as they move from dinner to pub and, nearing the centre of town and the old pub of their heyday, the conversation gradually turns to Davy’s life. And the teller and listener switch places when Davy finally reveals some of what he’s been holding back, and the ringing crisis from which he’s taken one single evening’s break. A delightfully gritty, yet tender portrait of what it means to try to put into words the many forms love can take, Love marks a triumphant new turn for Roddy Doyle.