DIGGING FOR PEAT in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds the body of a child, and it looks like she’s been murdered. As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him—his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and him in it up to the neck, blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what—a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls.
Bog Child is an astonishing novel exploring the sacrifices made in the name of peace, and the unflinching strength of the human spirit.
Siobhan Dowd's gem of a story is set amid the violent period of 1980s Ireland. Digging for peat in a bog, Fergus McCann, 18, and his Uncle Tally discover a child's body, believed to be 2,000 years old. The child, a girl Fergus names Mel, reveals her story in Fergus's dreams. Sile Bermingham's high-pitched voice has a dreamy quality that is not a good match for this male coming-of-age story. Bermingham's Fergus sounds like a pre-pubescent boy, rather than a young man on the verge of adulthood who is trying to make sense out of the crazy world around him. Further, Bermingham's slow pacing diminishes the mood of this haunting and suspenseful story. This production would be more engaging if it were narrated by a man. L.A.C. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
