AN TAOIBH Eile Den Scamall, the new novel by Galway born author Conor Bowman - his first novel as Gaeilge - has just been published by Arlen House.
Bowman is the author of six novels, including Wasting By Degrees (1998 ), The Redemption of George Baxter Henry (2011 ), and Horace Winter Says Goodbye (2017 ), and two collections of short stories. Today he lives in County Meath and works as a barrister.
An Taobh Eile Den Scamall (The Other Side of the Cloud ) is a departure for the author as it is his first novel in Irish. “It’s set in Galway city and Connemara in the 1990s,” he says. “and is devoid of mobile phones and the internet, and the virtual world that, for some at least, has replaced actual living!”
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Bowman grew up in Galway city in the 1970s and 1980s and attended UCG (now NUI Galway ), where he studied Law and English. Although he did not grow up speaking Irish, his primary education was as Gaeilge in Scoil Iognaid, Sea Road, and he has retained a commitment to the language since.
“I wanted to try and contribute something to the existing body of Irish language literature, not just to write in English and have it translated,” he says. “It’s important stories are written in Irish that reflect a viewpoint that is not often heard, in this case law students and boarding schools and families that break up instead of living happily and unrealistically ever after!”
An Taobh Eile Den Scamall is available from Dubray Books, Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, and Kenny’s.
