Few and Far Between

About the Book

From the award-winning author of The Raptures and The Fire Starters, a stunning, imaginative novel about a community living on a small group of islands. Sometimes utopia is not all that it seems...

'A joy to read…No writer captures the absurdity and beauty of life quite like [Jan Carson] does, and with this novel she has created something especially prescient' Sara Baume, author of Spill Simmer Falter Wither

‘Warm, sharp and gloriously funny, Jan Carson writes exuberant prose about difficult people in interesting times' Sarah Moss, author of Ripeness

It’s summer 2017 and the last few residents of the Lough Neagh Archipelago are facing imminent eviction. The flood planned to combat a devastating algae outbreak will submerge their homes, forcing them back to the Mainland for the first time in fifty years.

Robert-John and Marion Connolly came to the islands as children in the 1970s, following their mercurial father, an anthropologist studying the unique society that had developed there. For many, the Neagh Archipelago represented a utopia, a chance to be free of the prejudices and history of Troubles era Northern Ireland. But perhaps this utopia wasn’t all that it seemed.

Marion and Robert-John have grown accustomed to their haunted existence on the Ark, monitoring the mysterious Far Side, where ghostly figures linger and the land swallows secrets whole. How will they cope with a new life on the Mainland? Is it possible to leave the past behind? And will the Ark ever let them go...

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‘Jan Carson’s most ambitious novel yet – bold in its counter-factual conception, confident in its scope, yet intimate in the knowledge of its characters...It’s also very, very funny’ Lucy Caldwell, author of These Days

Praise for Jan Carson:

'Jan Carson is a born storyteller: her work is so imaginative, whimsical, mischievous and brave, but tender and curious too — you never know where she's going to take you next, so reading her is always an adventure. Exactly how it should be' Lisa McInerney, author of The Glorious Heresies

'Jan Carson is a unique and very special writer, one of the greatest of the modern fabulists' Donal Ryan, author of Heart be at Peace

'[The Fire Starters] blew me away with its power, anger and wit' Joseph O'Connor, Books of the Year

'One of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation.' Sunday Times

'Absolutely magnificent: dark, witty, charming' Marian Keyes, author of My Favourite Mistake

'Heart-rending, hilarious . . . It's a belter.' Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses

About the Author :
Jan Carson is a writer based in Belfast. Her first novel, Malcolm Orange Disappears, was published in 2014 to critical acclaim, followed by a short-story collection, Children's Children (2016), and two flash fiction anthologies, Postcard Stories (2017) and Postcard Stories 2 (2020). Her second novel, The Fire Starters (2019), won the EU Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Dalkey Novel of the Year Award and her third novel, The Raptures (2022) was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year and the Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her most recent short story collection, Quickly, While They Still Have Horses, was published in 2024. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and on BBC Radio 3 and 4. She has won the Harper's Bazaar short-story competition and has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, the An Post Irish Short Story of the Year, and the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize.

Review :
Warm, sharp and gloriously funny, Jan Carson writes exuberant prose about difficult people in interesting times Few and Far Between is Jan Carson’s most ambitious novel yet – bold in its counter-factual conception, confident in its scope, yet intimate in the knowledge of its characters, all of whom are accorded dignity and a quiet humanity. It’s also very, very funny. A joy to read… No writer captures the absurdity and beauty of life quite like [Jan Carson] does, and with this novel she has created something especially prescient, a fictional microcosm that speaks so powerfully about the troubled state of the planet, and of society. I revelled in her attention to detail, to the unexpected, to glorious oddity.