The Naming of Eliza Quinn [Paperback]

Carol Birch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 3, 2006

In the late 1960s, in the hollow of an ancient oak tree beyond a derelict cottage in Cork, were found the bones of a three-year-old girl. It was thought that they dated back to the time of the great potato famine of the mid 1800s. The bones were discovered by an American woman, who had inherited the cottage which had lain empty and broken for 40 years. Local searches reveal that the house had originally belonged to The Quinns. Eliza Quinn was their baby. This is a story that speaks of generations and of landscapes—abandoned villages, famine graves, old potato ridges sinking back into the earth, traces of a population that fell by two and a half million in less than 10 years. But above all, it is the story of the Quinn family. And it is Carol Birch's tour de force.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Always understated, yet crammed with incidents of the highest drama, the novel's best moments come when the intense feeling that underlies it breaks out into densely weighted fragments of speech. It is at least as good as anything on this year's Booker shortlist, and I remain as mystified as ever by Carol Birch's absence from that far-from cluttered file of modern novelist whose works are genuinely worth their welcome DJ Taylor, GUARDIAN Carol Birch's fiction continues to stretch bodies and minds to breaking point...marvellous and terrifying Sunday TIMES

About the Author

Carol Birch is the author of Little Sister, Scapegallows, and Turn Again Home, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Virago UK; New Ed edition (August 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 184408146X
• ISBN-13: 978-1844081462
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #928,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No reviews?, September 3, 2011

By 

S. Caughie "scaughie" (Scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Naming of Eliza Quinn (Paperback)

How is it that this book has only one review? Yes, it's a bit uneven in the early sections, as the other reviewer already pointed out, but I also agree with her that the later portions more than make up for it. I haven't read widely on the subject of the Irish potato famine, but I know enough to have been impressed by the level-headedness with which Birch approached the subject. There's no sentimentality here, which is no mean feat in a book that begins with the discovery of a child famine-victim's skeleton in a hollow tree. It's probably down to the narrators, particularly the original Eliza, who is practical perhaps to a fault; but that in itself makes the ending all the more heartbreaking. This is great modern Gothic. Read it!