The Gathering

The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn’t the drink that killed him – although that certainly helped – it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother’s house, in the winter of 1968. His sister Veronica was there then, as she is now: keeping the dead man company, just for another little while.

The Gathering is a family epic and a sexual history: tracing the line of hurt and redemption through three generations – starting with the grandmother, Ada Merriman – showing how memories warp and family secrets fester.

Anne Enright

was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. She has published one collection of stories, The Portable Virgin, which won the Rooney Prize, and three novels, The Wig My Father Wore, What Are You Like? – shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award and winner of the Encore Award – and The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch. Her first work of non-fiction, Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood was published in 2004. The Gathering won the Man Booker Prize 2007.

Anne Enright's q & a

What sparked The Gathering?
I am too superstitious to say where a book begins. I just keep writing and hope for the best.

Where and when is the novel set?
The novel is set on the northside of Dublin and spans the years 1925 - 2002

Do you have a favourite character in the novel?
I like Ada.

What's your favourite children's book and why?
Alice in Wonderland was my favourite book as a child, though I also loved The Treasure of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston, and The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett. The children in all of them were so adventurous - perhaps that's why.