Ebook284 pages5 hours
The Valley of the Squinting Windows
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this ebook
Valley of the Squinting Windows is a classic Irish novel set in central Ireland c. 1914–16 in Garradrimna is a tiny village where everyone is interested in everyone else's business.
Twenty years before the events of the book, Nan Byrne has a relationship with a local man, Henry Shannon, hoping to marry him for his wealth. She falls pregnant but Henry refuses to marry her. After a miscarriage, the baby is buried at the bottom of the garden. Henry marries another woman and later dies, while Nan herself emigrates to England and marries Ned Brennan. They later move back to Garradrimna, where the villagers rejoice in telling Ned about his wife's past.
Ned is brought low by the humiliation of his wife's past promiscuity. He drinks and makes a little as a labourer, whereas Nan works every day at sewing to support their only child, John, studying in England to become a Catholic priest. However, she becomes as cruel, petty, and jealous as the rest of Garradrimna, conniving with the postmistress to sabotage Myles Shannon's chance at romance with an English girl, to get revenge on the Shannon family for rejecting her.
Her son John returns to Garradrimna for a holiday, where he befriends Ulick Shannon (son of Henry) and falls for Rebecca Kerr, a schoolteacher. Ulick and Rebecca have a relationship however, and when Rebecca becomes pregnant she is disgraced and expelled from the village. Ulick abandons her and John murders him, weighing the body with lead and hiding it in the lake. Rebecca leaves for Dublin and an uncertain future. An old gossip informs Nan and John that she witnessed the night Nan gave birth to Henry's child – in reality, the child was born alive and was given to Henry and his wife – who they raised as their son, Ulick Shannon.
Twenty years before the events of the book, Nan Byrne has a relationship with a local man, Henry Shannon, hoping to marry him for his wealth. She falls pregnant but Henry refuses to marry her. After a miscarriage, the baby is buried at the bottom of the garden. Henry marries another woman and later dies, while Nan herself emigrates to England and marries Ned Brennan. They later move back to Garradrimna, where the villagers rejoice in telling Ned about his wife's past.
Ned is brought low by the humiliation of his wife's past promiscuity. He drinks and makes a little as a labourer, whereas Nan works every day at sewing to support their only child, John, studying in England to become a Catholic priest. However, she becomes as cruel, petty, and jealous as the rest of Garradrimna, conniving with the postmistress to sabotage Myles Shannon's chance at romance with an English girl, to get revenge on the Shannon family for rejecting her.
Her son John returns to Garradrimna for a holiday, where he befriends Ulick Shannon (son of Henry) and falls for Rebecca Kerr, a schoolteacher. Ulick and Rebecca have a relationship however, and when Rebecca becomes pregnant she is disgraced and expelled from the village. Ulick abandons her and John murders him, weighing the body with lead and hiding it in the lake. Rebecca leaves for Dublin and an uncertain future. An old gossip informs Nan and John that she witnessed the night Nan gave birth to Henry's child – in reality, the child was born alive and was given to Henry and his wife – who they raised as their son, Ulick Shannon.
Related to The Valley of the Squinting Windows
Related ebooks
Reading by Lightning Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Blindness of the Heart: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJane Eyre (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Sickness and In Health: ‘A masterful thriller’ Style Magazine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLocks, Bolts and Bars: A Life Inside Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Novels of Lisa Alther: Kinflicks, Original Sins, and Five Minutes in Heaven Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Thousand Tongues Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife Sentences Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Odd Women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrange Bewildering Time: Istanbul to Kathmandu in the Last Year of the Hippie Trail Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStudies in the Hereafter: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Magic Hour Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInnocents Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThings to do in Amsterdam: Museums Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRankin Inlet: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Libby Copeland's The Lost Family Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsZombie Rush: Banished from hell, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Call of the 'Go-Away' Bird Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Girl Who Trod on a Loaf: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Our Betty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Essays of George Eliot: "It is never too late to be what you might have been" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Brother and Four Sisters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Island of the Day Before: Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Testing of Luther Albright: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElizabeth Is Missing: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Never Get Out: Memories of Two Psychiatric Hospitals Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Disobedient Kids and Other Czecho-Slovak Fairy Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAgathe's Summer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStill on Herring Cove Road: Hickory, Dickory, Death: Herring Cove Road, #2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond the Eclipse: Stories of Life, Loss, and Hope Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Crime Thriller For You
Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Still Life: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hallowe'en Party: Inspiration for the 20th Century Studios Major Motion Picture A Haunting in Venice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cain's jawbone Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl Who Was Taken: A Gripping Psychological Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blacktop Wasteland: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notes on an Execution: An Edgar Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Daughter: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pieces of Her: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5False Witness: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lucky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5These Silent Woods: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Butcher Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Appeal: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Club: A Reese's Book Club Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kept Woman: A Will Trent Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: A Murdery Mystery Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One of Us Is Dead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summit Lake Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 120 Days of Sodom (Rediscovered Books): With linked Table of Contents Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Silent Wife: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cleaning the Gold: A Jack Reacher and Will Trent Short Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman in the Library: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Ruth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Obsessed: A gripping psychological thriller full of twists Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Trust Me When I Lie: A True Crime-Inspired Thriller Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Widow: A Will Trent Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Valley of the Squinting Windows
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Valley of the Squinting Windows - Brinsley McNamara
ne book_preview_excerpt.html }\˒Ǒm1qE
H2A+`K1*;5b=:0}ɺ{DfU
Dafw_=/_u~[8UQ}/~0շSW0<ÔWqk89SQ1V.Voyc/ô}Xt,pq@Xw#-7O+|mNUÄ;i:ULsg e?La&cuM/:WØ4`&5Ԣ~^nx~3cXVG &I;54y0SS.0KPVHB50c#e1)b28;=OҒíjsWq\5GMM)lap"nY=`tmgO8|1_G-W~T5 3Bu:%W?ys
v"_'S־XgNts_'vt݆)-rp1ra&bpKdžv
0e_0!iD}44/MR
8\M?o9B&<Q0קa1)
M~]L(3:ue;\+8ʹ6Lȕ3y*O2x{dn|f?bHIbwp<
0,;Y8wIaXvl^6BQulӟH'Q㢬
? a>Q~C5cwx6<[a}JM`(4ihqK#M~(cs>>~$Dݫ]Lc]hGDn1={b]bz_+ibᗈ<4=V;aP瑑NΥ~>|49(hYrpρs&}WZ\:D@ēCab;PuZI3`U-#Tg/~2܉%/댤>d>ldG\2flapg_O1ӕأ2
@=l縘8cmr
X<TOE"1Y"!ܘ`hQL QQ1`$ᐱC{d/Vs٤rI؇%ۊAW4R