Irish crime writers have been touching on the consequences of the economic recession for some years now - Declan Hughes, Tana French, Alan Glynn, Ken Bruen and Gene Kerrigan are among the more high-profile names, and a little bird tells me that there’s a similarly themed novel from Rob Kitchin on the way - but it appears that there’s a full-blown Recession Lit on the way. In the vanguard is Tom Galvin’s ominously titled GABRIEL’S GATE, about which the blurb elves have been wittering thusly: In 2010, when the recession took root in Ireland, the young people looked at the ground they were standing on and realised it was rotten. Rotten in so many ways, but especially in the ways made by man. So most decided it was time to do what their forefathers had done during times of famine, when the ground was rotten too, and leave. For America. And Australia. And Canada. But in the winter of 2010, a group of college students had a different idea. They weren’t going to leave. They would simply find a patch of land that hadn’t been contaminated and live off it. Just like their forefathers had always done before the land became rotten and the country corrupted by greed …As you might expect, the post-hippy commune doesn’t exactly work out to plan, and it’ll be interesting to see how the book reads against a backdrop of the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street campaign. Vincent Browne will launch GABRIEL’S GATE for Tom Galvin this coming Thursday, October 6th, at the Doorway Gallery, 24 Sth Frederick’s Street, Dublin 2, with festivities kicking off at 7pm. All, as if it needs to be said, are welcome …
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