The second haunting novel of the trilogy that began with TheDancer is set in Dublin between the wars. Christine Dwyer Hickey paints a disturbingly accurate picture ofa family's slow decline. The shadowy figure of the dancer reappears while hisson, the gambler of the title, struggles through to early manhood. The twinaddictions of father and son, alcoholic and gambler, seep through the pages,leaving an indelible mark. At once disquieting and deeply resonant, the plight of hercharacters creates a vivid sense of time and place. In an age of desperatepoverty, the torturous forces of life are brought to bear on this Dublinfamily. In TheGambler a powerful creative imagination is at work. ·
Christine Dwyer Hickey is a novelist and short-story writer. Her novel Tatty was short-listed for Irish Book of the Year in 2005 and was also long-listed for The Orange Prize. Her novels, The Dancer, The Gambler and The Gatemaker were re-issued in 2006 as The Dublin Trilogy three novels which span the story of a Dublin family from 1913 to 1956.
Twice winner of the Listowel Writers Week short story competition, she was also a prize winner in the Observer/Penguin short-story competition. Her latest novel, Last Train from Liguria, is set in 1930’s Fascist Italy and Dublin in the 1990’s and will be published in June 2009.
I love this. Great stories and unusual beautifully drawn dark characters C DH moves the narration effortlessly from each one to the next without missing a beat