William Wall

Joe Lyons has never had much success with relationships until he meets Suzie, a young music teacher. Living a solitary existence as a writer, he's alienated his mother with his autobiographical first novel and has little to say to his stridently religious sister, Mary. Only his father keeps in regular touch. But now, in the warmth of this new love, the happy endings finally seem to outnumber the tragedies. So when news comes that his mother is seriously ill, he returns home, but what he finds there shocks him out of his complacency and Joe, like his father, comes to understand the true nature of love.

"Alice is falling and all around her friends and lovers are tumbling towards disaster. Married to the rich and dangerous Paddy Lynch, she is no stranger to trouble. All through her life she has had to fight to survive. But she is not prepared to be a victim anymore.". "In this hypnotic and unsettling tale of emotional damage and revenge, William Wall depicts the lives of a group of friends and the strategies they adopt to survive in a brash and brutal new Ireland. Wealth and power appear to bind them, but it is wealth gained at an intolerable price and power that is little more than the ability to inflict pain. The world of Alice Falling is full of glittering lies and sordid truths, dangerous loves and distant friendships."--BOOK JACKET.

In an Ireland far removed from the familiar images of travel brochures, a bright teenager is heading for trouble: the son of a single mother who has given up, rarely at school, taking drugs, and hovering on the fringes of the city's criminal underworld. When he falls for Pat The Baker's sister his life changes irrevocably, not least because when she gets pregnant, Pat breaks his legs. But as he tries to make a new start and adjust to being a lover and father, he realises he cannot evade vengeance forever.