{"product_id":"fighting-with-shadows-or-sciamachy-9781564785855","title":"Fighting with Shadows Or, Sciamachy","description":"Initially published in 1984, Dermot Healy's stunning first novel, \u003ci\u003eFighting with Shadows\u003c\/i\u003e, returns to print after almost thirty years. Largely set in the border village of Fanacross, Co. Fermanagh, as Ireland stumbles clumsily toward modernity, the Allen family negotiate a bitter and troubled terrain. \u003ci\u003eFighting with Shadows\u003c\/i\u003e offers extraordinary and poetic glimpses of the compelling lives of ordinary people. The novel's landscape is of borderlands, of in-between spaces; it tells of violently sundered geographical borders, of maddening religious differences, of the anguished gaps between people as they struggle to find each other, and of how the dead reside among its inhabitants long after they've passed. At once realist account and nightmarish magic realist fable, \u003ci\u003eFighting with Shadows\u003c\/i\u003e occupies a truly important position in the history of modern Irish fiction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHealy, Dermot:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Dermot Healy (1947-2014) grew up in Cavan near the border with Northern Ireland. Following stints in London and Belfast, Healy settled in Ballyconnell, Co. Sligo, where he founded and edited the journal Force 10. His debut collection, \u003ci\u003eBanished Misfortune and Other Stories\u003c\/i\u003e (1982), was followed by four novels and an acclaimed memoir, \u003ci\u003eThe Bend for Home\u003c\/i\u003e (1996). Healy also wrote five collections of poetry and thirteen stage plays (his \u003ci\u003eCollected Plays\u003c\/i\u003e will be published by Dalkey Archive Press in 2016). Elected to Aosdána in 1986, he was the recipient of two Hennessy Literary Awards, the Tom-Gallon Award, the Encore Award, and the AWB Vincent American Ireland Fund Literary Award.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMurphy, Neil:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Neil Murphy teaches contemporary literature at NTU, Singapore. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eIrish Fiction and Postmodern Doubt\u003c\/i\u003e (2004) and editor of \u003ci\u003eAidan Higgins: The Fragility of Form\u003c\/i\u003e (2010) and of the revised edition of \u003ci\u003eHiggins's Balcony of Europe\u003c\/i\u003e (2010). He co-edited (with Keith Hopper) a special Flann O'Brien centenary issue of the \u003ci\u003eReview of Contemporary Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e (2011) and \u003ci\u003eThe Short Fiction of Flann O'Brien\u003c\/i\u003e (2013). He has published numerous articles and book chapters on contemporary fiction, Irish writing, and theories of reading, and is currently completing a book on John Banville.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHopper, Keith:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Keith Hopper teaches Literature and Film Studies at Oxford University's Department for Continuing Education, and is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Irish Studies at St Mary's University, Twickenham. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eFlann O'Brien: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Post-Modernist\u003c\/i\u003e (revised edition 2009), general editor of the twelve-volume \u003ci\u003eIreland into Film\u003c\/i\u003e series (2001-7), and co-editor (with Neil Murphy and Ondřej Pilný) of a special \"Neglected Irish Fiction\" issue of \u003ci\u003eLitteraria Pragensia\u003c\/i\u003e (2013). He is a regular contributor to the \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e and is currently completing a book on the writer and filmmaker Neil Jordan.","brand":"Dalkey Archive Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50473822716178,"sku":"9781564785855","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_dc978438-81ab-4446-bc04-8f9ca2c7f459.jpg?v=1730203767","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/fighting-with-shadows-or-sciamachy-9781564785855","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}