Cal

"Bernard MacLaverty’s powerful novel is a love story as affecting and tragic as you could want." —USA Today

"A formidable fictional triumph."

"Miraculously vivid precision…[MacLaverty] is a born novelist."

"To fashion a short, telling novel out of the hideous complexities of Northern Ireland takes narrative skill of a high order. In Cal Bernard MacLaverty has managed to do it superbly."

"Cal is a hard, dark gemstone of a book."

"As a distillation of the dread and the guilt, the seeming futilities and momentary releases of life in Troubles-era Northern Ireland, it’s indelible."

Bernard MacLaverty is the author of five previous collections of stories and five novels, including Grace Notes, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Midwinter Break, shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Born in Ireland, he now lives in Glasgow, Scotland.