Down by the River

DOWN BY THE RIVER begins, deceptively, in an idyllic rural setting somewhere in Ireland. By the end, its consequences have addressed and divided the political and judicial fabric of the nation.

A crime of passion results in an emotional battlefield for one and all, with opposing factions taking militant sides. In the centre, a young girl struggles with the conflicts of mind and body, the teaching of her faith and her mounting bewilderment at what she might do.

This is her rite of passage, a stark progress from the role of child to that of woman; an initiation into terror and beyond it to wisdom. Mary is about to be a mother and unwilling to be so: because she is not quite 14 years old, and because the baby is the product of incest with her father.

Controversial novel, based upon the 1992 X case, that challenges the moral standing of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland.