That They May Face the Rising Sun

First edition. Crown 8vo. Pp. [vi], 298. Black paper-covered boards, butter-yellow titles to spine; pale grey endpapers. Wraparound photograph of Leaves in Orgeval, France, by Paul Strand to dust jacket (priced £16.99 to front flap). Published by Knopf in the U.S. under the title By the Lake.

Signed by Author to title page.

Winner of the 2003 Irish Fiction Award (formerly the Hughes & Hughes Award). Shortlisted for the 2003 International Dublin Literary Award. McGahern's acclaimed final novel – his first for twelve years – depicts a year in the life of a close-knit community centred 'round a lake in rural Ireland. In an RTÉ radio interview in the year of publication the writer claimed that "the ordinary fascinates me" and "the ordinary is the most precious thing in life". "[A]rguably the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett." –The Guardian