The Valley of the Squinting Windows
'The Valley of the Squinting Windows' Summary
Valley of the Squinting Windows is a classic Irish novel set in central Ireland c. 1914-16. Garradrimna is a tiny village where everyone is interested in everyone else's business and wishes them to fail. Twenty years before the events of the book, Nan Byrne has a relationship with a local man, Henry Shannon, hoping to marry him for his wealth. She falls pregnant but Henry refuses to marry her. After a miscarriage, the baby is buried at the bottom of the garden. Henry marries another woman and later dies, while Nan emigrates to England and marries Ned Brennan. They later move back to Garradrimna, where the villagers rejoice in telling Ned about his wife's past.
Ned is now an alcoholic, brought low by the humiliation of his wife's past promiscuity. He makes a little as a labourer, whereas Nan works every day at sewing to support their only child, John, studying in England to become a Catholic priest. However, she has become as cruel, petty and jealous as the rest of Garradrimna, and connives with the postmistress to sabotage Myles Shannon's chance at romance with an English girl, to get revenge on the Shannon family for rejecting her.
John returns to Garradrimna for a holiday, where he befriends Ulick Shannon (son of Henry) and falls for Rebecca Kerr, a schoolteacher. Ulick and Rebecca have a relationship, however, and when Rebecca becomes pregnant she is disgraced and expelled from the village. Ulick abandons her and John murders him, weighing the body with lead and hiding it in the lake. Rebecca leaves for Dublin and an uncertain future. An old gossip informs Nan and John that she was there the night Nan gave birth to Henry's child - in reality, the child was born alive and was given to Henry and his wife - who they raised as their son, Ulick Shannon.
Book Details
Author
Brinsley MacNamara
Ireland
John Weldon known by his pen- and stage-name Brinsley MacNamara, was an Irish writer, playwright, and the registrar of the National Gallery of Ireland. He is the author of several novels, the most wel...
More on Brinsley MacNamaraDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
The Flight of the Heron by D. K. Broster
This is the story of an unlikely friendship between Keith Windham, a career soldier in the British Army, and a young Highland chieftain who follows Bo...
The Boy Scouts Through the Big Timber by St. George Henry Rathborne
Deep in the heart of the Pacific Northwest, where the towering pines reach for the sky and the rivers run wild, the Silver Fox Patrol of Boy Scouts em...
The Sacred Fount by Henry James
The Sacred Fount is a novel by Henry James, first published in 1901. This strange, often baffling book concerns an unnamed narrator who attempts to di...
The Book of A Thousand Nights and a Night (Arabian Nights), Volume 01 by Richard Francis Burton
One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in Englis...
Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair by William Morris
In a world of magic and adventure, a young boy named Christopher sets out on a quest to find his true home and the love of his life. Child Christophe...
Prisoner of the Mill by Harry Hazelton
In the shadowy depths of an abandoned steel mill, secrets lie buried beneath layers of rust and decay. In "Prisoner of the Mill" by Harry Hazelton, a...
A World of Girls: The Story of a School by L. T. Meade
It follows the lives of a group of girls who attend a prestigious boarding school in England. Written in 1886, the book explores themes of friendship,...
Settlers of the Marsh by Frederick Philip Grove
It follows the story of a young man named Pringle who moves to the isolated and harsh land of Manitoba to escape the confines of his former life. Thro...
The Color of a Great City by Theodore Dreiser
This is a novel that immerses readers in the vibrant tapestry of urban life. Set against the backdrop of a bustling city, the book offers a compelling...
Unto Caesar by Baroness Orczy
In ancient Rome, a young woman must choose between her love for a slave and her duty to her family. Unto Caesar is a historical romance novel by Baro...
Reviews for The Valley of the Squinting Windows
No reviews posted or approved, yet...