Lost Fields: A classic Irish novel set during the Great Depression

by Michael McLaverty

Michael McLaverty – a mentor for the young Seamus Heaney – is one of the greats of Irish writing. This novel of the Great Depression tells the story of working-class family life in 1930s Belfast.

Genres: Ireland

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 1980

About the author

McLaverty (1904-1992) was a teacher and writer.

Reviews

[Padraic]

Beautifully crafted novel by a little known Irish author from Ulster.

A family struggles in 1930s Belfast; later moves to an ancestral home out in the Ulster coutryside.

McLaverty was a better short story writer, but Lost Fields is his best long work.

[A. Mary]

McLaverty's novel could almost be read as a metaphor for the larger experience of hopeless, disenfranchised situation of the Catholic poor in Ireland, north or south. But it doesn't need to be read that way. It's a story with clearly drawn characters, focussing on three generations of a family, and their circular historical trajectory. The threat of eviction, a stout thread in Irish stories, and the deep desire for some small corner to call one's own, the pride of the laboring poor, resistance to external authority, women as pillars of the family, these things are nicely woven in this story about a plodding life. The story itself does not plod, however, and the characters all have their moments to lament and dream.

[D.J. Kelly]

I love everything by Michael McLaverty but this is by far and away his best work. He is a master of moving prose. Every sentence is crafted with gold. It is a powerful book which I love for the honesty of its story as much as for the beauty of its prose. A well-paced and heart-rending story, an account of the struggles of a working class family in 1930's Belfast, this book is another one which lives in my bedside favourites pile.

[Samuel]

It's well written but the story didn't grip me as much as 'Call My Brother Back' or 'Thief in the Night'.