Jan Carson Gives Uneasy Utopias a Haunted Bite
Strange politics, haunted islands and uneasy dreams of perfect places shape this collection. Jan Carson brings a speculative edge to Irish fiction, using odd premises to reveal fears and longings that feel recognisably human. The oddness always leads back to feeling.
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Few and Far Between
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Jan Carson Gives Uneasy Utopias a Haunted Bite
Strange politics, haunted islands and uneasy dreams of perfect places shape this collection. Jan Carson brings a speculative edge to Irish fiction, using odd premises to reveal fears and longings that feel recognisably human. The oddness always leads back to feeling.
- Book Synopsis
-
From the award-winning author of The Raptures and The Fire Starters, a stunning, imaginative novel about a community living on a small group of islands. Sometimes a utopia is not all that it seems...
In Few & Far Between, award-winning writer Jan Carson imagines an alternative version of Northern Ireland's recent past. A prime minister with a mad plan to create a new county. An archipelago of haunted islands. A community seeking refuge from the Troubles. The perfect place to escape to - or so it appears.
It's summer 2017 and the last few residents of the Lough Neagh Archipelago are facing imminent eviction. The flood planned to combat a devastating algae outbreak will submerge their homes, forcing them back to the Mainland for the first time in fifty years. How will they cope with modern life? Will the Ark give up its secrets before it sinks? Can they leave the past behind?
Ideal for readers who:
- Want Northern Irish fiction with haunted islands and political imagination.
- Like alternative histories where refuge starts to look less safe than promised.
- Care about communities facing eviction, secrets and the pull of the mainland.
- Prefer speculative premises that stay grounded in recognisable human fear.
- About The Author
- Jan Carson is a writer based in Belfast. She has published three novels, three short story collections and two micro-fiction collections. Her novel The Fire Starters won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019. Jan's latest novel, The Raptures was published by Doubleday in early 2022 and was subsequently shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year and Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her short story collection Quickly, While They Still Have Horses was published by Doubleday (UK) in April 2024 and Scribner (US) in July 2024. Her writing has been aired on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and RTE. She is the Seamus Heaney Centre Fellow at Queen's University Belfast 2025 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her first stage play, an adaptation of the children's classic, The Velveteen Rabbit will be produced by Replay Theatre Company at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast in March 2025. Her next novel, Few and Far Between is forthcoming in early 2026.
- Product Details
-
- ISBN
- 9781529936766
- Format
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Doubleday, (09 April 2026)
- Number of Pages
- 368
- Weight
- 432 grams
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 233 x 152 x 27 mm
- Categories: