About the Book
Sometimes all that can heal grief is the right story. In late 1980s Dublin, Tess meets Mungo, who, like herself, is ridden with guilt - she because she is forced to leave her son with her hated husband; he because his son is scarred after a fire caused by his carelessness. They are too hurt to reveal their real selves to each other, but Tess hits on inventing a fantastic life in Berlin, and he picks up on it, inventing an equally fantastic life in Spain. Their fables spark erotic desire, and afford them the courage to confront their anguish and deepest fears. It isn't important that they stay together - and Tess does strike out with new lovers, to Mungo's initial bewilderment; what is important is that they finish their stories.
About the Author :
I was born in London in 1950 to Irish parents from Co Laois and Co Sligo. The north London of the 1950s was an enchanting, if in retrospect dangerous, playground for children, and I frequently escaped the confines of the family house to play in the bomb-sites in Highgate. This experience was the germ of my novel The Water Star. In 1956 the family settled in Ireland near Wexford town, but moved a few years later to Hollyfort in north Wexford. This picturesque landscape, featuring Croghan mountain and Annagh Hill, and the Bann River, features in the three novels which make up The Bann River Trilogy. Apart from three years in Barcelona in the mid-seventies, I've lived in Dublin since 1971, where I have been a full time poet and novelist since 1979. My next work, due in 2018, will be non-fiction, provisionally entitled 'Histories of The Irish.'
Review :
It's a very strange and impressive book. Mr Casey has managed to make two lost and empty lives obsessively interesting. -Martha Gelhorn 'This is a passionate, erotic, mature novel' -Ronan Sheehan -Irish Press ...the stories they tell of adventures in places they haven't visited (Tess's Germany and Mungo's Spain) form a fascinating double narrative, one which allows for deep insights into both of their lives, and which contributes to the novel's complexity. -Eamonn Wall, The Review of Contemporary Fiction Equally important to the development of the relationship between the two characters, Tess and Mungo, and indeed to the structure of the novel itself, is their imaginative tale-spinning courtship involving exotic European locations. Affecting the entire tone, however, are the women in the story; by choosing this emphasis, Casey creates a "modern" fable which is paradoxically liberating for both sexes. And let's not forget the considerable craft of the author. A highly impressive debut. -Sharon Barnes, In Dublin This is a deeply accomplished novel. Casey has a penetrating eye for the stuff of everyday relationships and the compassion to turn the ordinary into compelling and vivid fiction. -Eoin McNamee, The Irish Times I adored it when I read it. It's an absolutely gorgeous portrait of Dublin. It reminded me of the film Les Amants des Pont Neuf. -Katy Hayes, The Arts Show, RTE Radio They fall in love - well, they're going to have an affair - but what's terrific about it is they tell each other stories, which are untrue. She supposedly spent some time in Berlin, and he supposedly in Barcelona, and they recount these stories to each other and both of them know that the other one has never been there. But in order to create some kind of wonderful thing out of what really could be a quite sordid sort of love affair, they tell each other these stories. Just a beautiful book, beautiful. -Evelyn Conlon, Books of the Year, RTE Radio Casey writes with the even, controlled tone of a much more experienced author, delving so deeply, so completely into his characters that it's almost impossible to avoid becoming involved, even immersed, in their saga. You'll wonder about Tess and Mungo. You'll care about them. You'll even find yourself going along with the stories they weave for each other, hoping the tales end before the relationship does. Why? Because they're not flashy high-concept creations, they're palpably REAL characters, fully realized and drawn with sensitivity and intelligence. -Colin Lacey, The Irish Voice, New York Casey's main achievement in The Fabulists lies in his skilful handling of the elements of fact and fantasy, realism and surrealism that make up the novel. Fabulous, seductive fictions are anchored in mundane realities and the compulsion to invent counterbalanced by the obligation to confront the truth. His geographically centred, metaphorically open narrative allows us to read Tess and Mungo's journey from immurement to freedom as a parable of a maturing Ireland. The subtlety and ease with which Casey achieves such symmetry between private and public worlds makes The Fabulists an assured and impressive debut. -Liam Harte, Irish Studies Review Casey has created an involving, mature drama of a man and a woman struggling to endure profound personal disappointments. -Publishers Weekly."
