Publisher's Synopsis
The second novel from this highly-acclaimed, ground-breaking and often controversial Welsh language author and translator.
Alun Brady was a bit of a mummy's boy, stuck at home at 30 in the suburbs. When grandfather Paddy makes his deathbed in their spare room, he brings fresh air into Alun's cushy number and makes him face the hardest decision of his life. Later, just out of prison, Al is haunted by his brother Will's perfect new family and seeks in dangerous new friends what he needs from his lost kin. Drawn into Cardiff's underbelly, events take a turn towards the tragic as he discovers he cannot break free of his own blood ties.
This is an authentic urban thriller with a strong colloquial voice, stepping between social classes to say important things about memory and identity.
"An absorbing fable... enjoyable and pacey.. providing a thoughtful take on what it means to be alive and how suffering can control and overwhelm you."
Time Out London
"[Llwyd] Owen, winner of the 2007 Welsh Book of the Year Award, makes his English-language debut with this scalding variation on his countryman Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night." ... Owen's savage indictment of Britain's welfare programs and its socialised medicine is strong stuff by itself, but it's the tragic personal story of Alun as he spirals full of self-inflicted guilt toward an ironic, violent conclusion that packs the real emotional punch. Owen unflinchingly reveals how easy it will be to 'rage, rage, against the dying of the light'."
Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Shifting in time and cutting the social classes of Cardiff, Faith, Hope and Love is a well-plotted, pacey, urban thriller evoking the city of Cardiff and exploring notions of memory and identity."
South Wales Argus
"A superlative plot-master; he is a messenger from the underworld whose narrative leads us through the mist."
Fflur Dafydd
"Compelling and emotionally affecting, stunning... If you can cope with literary heartbreak, you must get hold of a copy."
www.gwales.com
"Deftly plotted and pitch-perfect in its pacing... we watch, mesmerised, as the circle closes... should bring Owen the wider readership he deserves."
New Welsh Review
"Fast becoming Wales' answer to Irvine Welsh."
Red-handed
"A well-paced and tightly plotted novel that holds a magnifying glass to the middle classes to highlight their dark underbelly. Full of memorable characters and containing a powerful message, the author has created an unconventional thriller that will linger long in the memory."
Lloyd Jones
Llwyd Owen is the author of four Welsh-language novels, among them the Book of the Year-winning Ffydd Gobaith Cariad (Alcemi, ISBN: 978-0-862439392). Born and bred in Cardiff, he studied at Glantaf and Bangor University, before working briefly in Cardiff's TV industry. Escaping to Asia, Egypt and Australasia, he has now settled down again in the Welsh capital to write fiction and work part time as a translator.
