Knock based author launches book

Local first time author Mikal O’Boyle has just launched her debut young-adult fiction novel Snake the Gypsy. O’Boyle, who is an American by birth but living in Knock with her Mayo husband, had her book launched recently by Minister for Arts and Culture, Jimmy Deenihan. Snake the Gypsy is narrated by an elderly woman, and is a recounting of her life as a young girl. It begins with a lonely gypsy girl who is ostracised by her own nation and is neglected by her unsympathetic mother. Times seem very hard for her as she struggles to find happiness in life until she finally befriends an extraordinary snake who follows her, protects her, and even dances with her during her rigorous training sessions. When the time comes for snake to enter into the Locé, the bi-annual gypsy festival, a horrible fate befalls the gypsy girl and her snake, deserting her in a place she is unfamiliar with, but she soon discovers that things have become even worse as she has stumbled into the midst of a war between two very unlikely beings. The book is available in hard copy on Amazon and on the Kindle.