'One of the best stylists in English prose now at work.' - Newsweek
Elizabeth Reegan, after years of freedom–and loneliness–marries into the enclosed Irish village of her upbringing. The children are not her own; her husband is straining to break free from the servile security of the police force; and her own life, threatened by illness, seems to be losing the last vestiges of its purpose. Moving between tragedy and savage comedy, desperation and joy, John McGahern's first novel is one of haunting power.
"A formal, graceful prose that rises effortlessly to the moving occasion. There is a quiet authority in his work that promises well for the future." - The Times Literary Supplement
"The details are evoked with a scrupulous yet enhancing accuracy that reminds one of the young Joyce. He is astonishingly successful in penetrating the mind of a mature woman... Mr. McGahern is the real thing.' - Spectator
"McGahern brings us the tonic gift of the best ficiton, the sense of truth–the sense of transparency that permits us to see imaginary lives more clearly than we see our own." - John Updike, from his citation when he awarded Amongst Women the GBA Book Prize
