Solar Bones
Mike McCormack
2016 • Tramp Press
My guiding principle when I set out to write a book or a story is this: if the book or the story could write itself, what lines, shapes and rhythms would it take on? That’s what I try to do. I try to write the book as if it could birth itself, as if I wasn’t there. I’m actually deeply grateful and indebted to my readers, but I don’t give them any thought when I’m writing the book. The book is the book; just try to body forth the book as it would want itself to be.
— Mike McCormack
Solar Bones
Mike McCormack
2016 • Tramp Press
My guiding principle when I set out to write a book or a story is this: if the book or the story could write itself, what lines, shapes and rhythms would it take on? That’s what I try to do. I try to write the book as if it could birth itself, as if I wasn’t there. I’m actually deeply grateful and indebted to my readers, but I don’t give them any thought when I’m writing the book. The book is the book; just try to body forth the book as it would want itself to be.
— Mike McCormack
Description
Once a year, on All Souls’ Day, it is said in Ireland that the dead may return. Solar Bones is the story of one such visit. Marcus Conway, a middle-aged engineer, turns up one afternoon at his kitchen table and considers the events that took him away and then brought him home again. Funny and strange, McCormack’s ambitious and other-worldly novelplays with form and defies convention. This profound new work is by one of Ireland’s most important contemporary novelists. A beautiful and haunting elegy, this story of order and chaos, love and loss captures how minor decisions ripple into waves and test our integrity every day.
Excerpts
Interviews
- Journal.ie: 'How Mike McCormack Went From "Not Being Able to Give a Book Away" to Winning 100K Award'
- The Honest Ulsterman: An Interview with Mike McCormack
- The Stinging Fly: Interview with Mike McCormack
- The Irish Times: Mike McCormack – ‘A Lot of People Had Faith to Stick by Me in the Difficult Years’
Prizes & Awards
- Winner of the Goldsmiths Prize, 2016
- Winner of An Post Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year, 2016
- Winner of the International Dublin Literary Award, 2018
- Shortlisted for the Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award, 2017
- Shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, 2017
- Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, 2017
Reviews
- Rob Doyle, The Irish Times
- Ian Sansom, The Guardian
- Colin Barrett, The Irish Times
- Martin Riker, The New York Times
- Lara Palmqvist, Chicago Review of Books
- Daniel Green, Full Stop
- Robert Cremins, Star Tribune
- Kirkus
Audio
- Irish Times Books Podcast: Mike McCormack – Solar Bones
- Dublin City Libraries & Archives: Literary Award 2018 Winner Interview
Video
- Kennys Bookshop: Mike McCormack reads from Solar Bones
- Dox on Air: Museum of Literature Ireland - Mike McCormack reading from Solar Bones (Followed by Czech Translation)
- Canongate: Mike McCormack on Solar Bones, Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize For Fiction 2017
- Irish Book Awards: Backstage Interview with Mike McCormack
- The Cinemancers: Solar Bones with Mike McCormack & Professor Frank Shovlin @WowFest 2017
- Villanova University: 2019 Literary Festival Event – Author Mike McCormack
Film or TV Adaptations
- Rough Magic: Theatre Production of Solar Bones
- Kilkenny Arts Festival: Solar Bones Trailer
- Vimeo: Director Lynne Parker Talks About Solar Bones
- Vimeo: Playwright Martin West Talks About Adapting Solar Bones
- Independent, Theatre Review
- Business Post, Theatre Review
- The Times, Theatre Review
