The Hill Road [Hardcover]

Patrick O'Keeffe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2005

Born and raised on a dairy farm in rural County Limerick, Ireland, Patrick O’Keeffe has penned an accomplished debut with The Hill Road, unveiling the precarious balance of family intimacies played out in the timeless and cloistered world of the Irish farm country. O’Keeffe’s four linked novellas span time and generations, and each brims with gorgeous, thoughtful prose and enduring characters.

Love and secrets, unfulfilled dreams and missed opportunities, fear, greed, and compromised moral decisions all leave their mark here. A dairy farmer unknowingly falls in love with the younger sister of a woman he once cruelly jilted. A young man recalls his spinster aunt and the tragic story of her life’s great love—a soldier who returned alive but altered by the Great War.

A richly rewarding work that will resonate with fans of William Trevor and Alice Munro, The Hill Road heralds the arrival of an important new voice.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"A remarkable achievement . . . There is a wonderful Irish music running through O’Keeffe’s prose, yet his tales of ordinary rural life in twentieth-century Ireland are unsparing and never sentimental."
—The Baltimore Sun

"Handsome, subtle narratives by an exquisitely talented Irishborn writer."
—Elle

"Lush and evocative . . . a dreamlike collection."
—The New York Times Book Review --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

About the Author

Patrick O’Keeffe emigrated from Ireland to the United States in the mid-1980s and received a degree in English from the University of Kentucky. In 1998, O’Keeffe was accepted into the MFA writing program at the University of Michigan, where he studied with Nicholas Delbanco, Charles Baxter, and Eileen Pollack. He is now a lecturer at the University of Michigan.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Viking (July 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670033987
• ISBN-13: 978-0670033980
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,752,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid, engaging stories, August 31, 2005

By 

Ruby Petunia (San Francisco, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hill Road (Hardcover)

I've been on the lookout for this book since reading O'Keeffe's story "Looby's Hill" (reprinted here in revised form and with a revised title) in Doubletake a couple of years ago. O'Keeffe has a nice way with a sentence and a compassionate eye for character. The Hill Road is a quiet, confident, and pleasantly earnest collection.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A VERY WELL WRITTEN BIT OF WORK, March 14, 2006

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Hill Road (Hardcover)

I enjoy books about people. I enjoy books about Ireland. Most importantly, I enjoy well written books. This work filled all my needs. The author's syntax is is simply amazing. In all truth, I was very much surprised and the quality here, as I had really not heard all that much about this particular book. That is a real pity. People are missing out on a good thing here. I suspect the publisher did not do their job as well as they could have in getting the word out on this one. This is one of those works I will certainly give a reread in the future simply for the delight of experiencing the authors use of our language. As to character development and character sketches, it does not get much better than this. Recommend this one highly and further recommend you go ahead and buy the thing as you will no doubt, like myself, want to give this one more than just one read.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inside the lives, December 6, 2005

By 

Dianne H. Nagel "Books Books Books" (Butler, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hill Road (Hardcover)

This was one amazing read. I made sure that I was alone, comfortable and the house was absolutely silent to ensure the I absorbed every word. This book takes you into the lives of the Irish farmer. I could envision every animal and house and blade of grass. It was a wonderful, wonderful read. I only wish there were more readily available.
Dianne Nagel
Butler, Maryland