Hand In The Fire

Hugo Hamilton

HarperCollins

Otago Daily Times, May 22nd 2010

In The Hand in the Fire, the passions and contradictions of contemporary Ireland and the difficulties of assimilation into a foreign country are writ large within the minutiae of the domestic.  The narrator, Vid Cosic, is Serbian emigre fleeing the ghosts of his past. A stranger in a strange land, the unexpected and apparently unconditional offer of friendship from young Dublin lawyer, Kevin Concannon, seems to be a blessing. 

After Kevin (acting in Vid’s defence) leaves a man beaten and bleeding on the sidewalk one night, Vid becomes is the main suspect.  In loyalty to his friend Vid remains silent about Kevin’s involvement, and in return the lawyer arranges for him to do some work on his mother’s house.   Whilst there, Vid learns about Kevin’s estranged father, Johnny, and the tragic story of his aunt, Maire Concannon, whose pregnant body was washed ashore and buried in an unmarked grave on Inishmore in the early 1900s. 

When Kevin’s sister Ellis falls pregnant to her deadbeat boyfriend, Vid feels compelled to unravel the question of whether Marie’s death was suicide or murder, and to reconcile Johnny with the family, lest history repeat itself.  Kevin’s responds with a rejection as sudden and complete as his initial friendship, while the consequences of the violence he committed at the beginning of their acquaintance return to Vid with tragic results.

Although not quite in the league of Colm Toibin, Hamilton uses the eyes of an outsider to skilfully capture the complexities of the Irish character without passing judgement, and in so doing takes the reader with him.

https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/books/review-special-novels