The Gatemaker

'A vivid recreation of Dublin and Belfast in the war years, and the capstone of a remarkable trilogy whose author has imagined herself into the history of its characters with unfailing truth and compassion' Anthony Cronin

The third book in the author's Dublin trilogy, which began with the critically-acclaimed The Dancer and was followed by The Gambler, climaxes in the suburb of Crumlin with tragedy and shame for the dancer's family. Christine Dwyer Hickey's elegant and beautiful prose culminates here in this final chapter of one family's decline from prosperity to poverty. Her superbly drawn characters are made to face up to the often terrible consequences of their own actions, evoking a moving and elegiac testament to the city of Dublin in the years during and after the war.

At once disquieting and deeply resonant, Dwyer Hickey creates a vivid sense of time and place, where, in an age of desperate poverty, the tortuous forces of life are brought down to bear on this Dublin family. In The Gatemaker a powerful creative imagination is at work.

Praise for Dwyer Hickey:

'Some of the finest writing of this century and the last' Irish Independent

'The intricacies of class are brilliantly observed through the eyes of a distressed child. [The] achievement is the creation of Tatty's voice, a voice that guides the reader through this world from the child's limited perspective ... Dwyer Hickey successfully juxtaposes the ordinary and the extraordinary' The Irish Times