Unspoken

A Family. A Decade. A Nation. A Novel. Election Day, June 17th 1959. Ann Strong, terrified of miscarriage after losing her previous baby, is admitted into the labour ward of St Gerard's. Outside in the waiting room, her husband Fonsie, coalman, anxiously awaits news, and worries about how he will provide for a fifth child. With him are four other fathers-to-be. One is Michael Liston, property dealer: he chain smokes and curses his fate ? this child means he can never move to Dublin and separate from the wife he loathes. Brendan Barry, youngest of the group, giddily wonders at how fast life moves: a quick encounter with a pretty girl in a hotel room nine months ago, and now he is married and on the brink of fatherhood. Cormac Kiely, architect, sits back, relaxes and awaits the good news: professionally successful and still in love, his optimism is born of experience. And George Collopy, travelling pork and bacon salesman, prematurely balding and religious, prays fervently for a son... Unspoken charts the interlocking stories of these very different families through a tumultuous decade during which Ireland threw off some ancient shackles and assumed some other, more modern ones. A novel of huge imaginative richness, alive with character and understated ambition, Unspoken is both a magnificent work of literature and an absolute delight. AUTHOR: Gerry Stembridge is writer for film and television who lives in Ireland. He is the author of two novels; Counting Down and According to Luke. His film credits include the screenplay for Ordinary Decent Criminal (starring Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell and Linda Fiorentino) and he co-wrote Nora (a film about James Joyce and his wife, Nora Barnacle starring Ewan McGregor and Susan Lynch). He is the co-creator with Dermot Morgan, of Scrap Saturday. SELLING POINTS: ? An epic and wonderful novel sure to garner widespread attention. ? The 1960s are integral to the story of modern Ireland ? when many of the forces that have forged today's Ireland were set in motion. ? Author is a well-known playwright and screenwriter ? LEAD TITLE: dauntless PR drive for reviews, radio and TV coverage