Our protagonist is Catherine McKenna, the estranged daughter of a recently-deceased Northern Irish publican and a Glasgow-based composer. Northern Irish and a writer of short stories, novels, and plays, he was shortlisted for the 1997 Booker Prize for ‘Grace Notes’ in 1997 and has won a slew of other literary awards. I had never read anything by MacLaverty before. I’m sure my occasional custom makes little difference, but I tell myself I’m contributing to the diversity of the bookshop marketplace when I go in! I always try to make a point of buying a book from independents the staff are usually fantastically knowledgeable and there is a variety of books on the shelves that you don’t get at a Waterstones or a WHSmith. It was bought in Bookpoint, a fantastic little independent bookshop in Dunoon a couple of months ago. The sacristy lamp burned steadily in its red glass container – symbol of the real presence of the tabernacle. A coin dropped into the box of a candelabra – from the noise it was possible to tell how full it was – clink for full, clunk for empty. And old women whispering prayers full of esses. Sounds were magnified – a candle dropped, high heels on marble, the swing doors whumpfing closed. The place was dim – a quarter lit to save electricity. ‘Catherine had never been in a church this late.
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