The novel’s landscape is drawn from the intimately domestic, from political history and from Irish legend. In the interview extracts that follow, Seamus Deane throws some light on the writing process, family secrets and Northern Ireland. The English & Media Centre interviewed Seamus Deane for their publication and video, Three Modern Novels at A Level. A literary critic, poet and Irish republican, what Seamus Deane wants to represent – growing up in Northern Ireland in the forties and fifties, political treachery, sectarian violence, rumour, hauntings, family secrets – makes particular demands on the written word, literary forms and on the reader. Reading in the Dark was the 1996 Guardian Fiction Prize-winner and was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize. Reading in the Dark has attracted enormous critical attention and acclaim: ‘we are in the territory of the power of the word’ (Anne Devlin, The Independent, August 1996) ‘a thriller of such enigmatic depth that even when all is revealed, its mystery does not dissolve … a masterpiece of eloquence distilled’ (Laura Cumming, The Guardian, December 1996). “I have confidence that there will be a solution (to the Northern Ireland conflict), maybe by the year 2020 when we all have 2020 vision” – Seamus Deane
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