Thin Places
by Kerri ní Dochartaigh
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Pub Date 28 Jan 2021 | Archive Date 22 Sep 2021
Canongate Books | Canongate
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Description
'A special, beautiful, many-faceted book'
Amy Liptrot
'A remarkable piece of writing . . . Luminous'
Robert Macfarlane
Kerri ní Dochartaigh was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, at the very height of the Troubles. She was brought up on a grey and impoverished council estate on the wrong side of town. But for her family, and many others, there was no right side. One parent was Catholic, the other was Protestant. In the space of one year they were forced out of two homes and when she was eleven a homemade petrol bomb was thrown through her bedroom window. Terror was in the very fabric of the city, and for families like Kerri’s, the ones who fell between the cracks of identity, it seemed there was no escape.
In Thin Places, a mixture of memoir, history and nature writing, Kerri explores how nature kept her sane and helped her heal, how violence and poverty are never more than a stone’s throw from beauty and hope, and how we are, once again, allowing our borders to become hard, and terror to creep back in. Kerri asks us to reclaim our landscape through language and study, and remember that the land we fight over is much more than lines on a map. It will always be ours but, at the same time, it never really was.
Advance Praise
'A remarkable piece of writing. I don't think I've ever read a book as open-hearted as this. It resists easy pieties of nature as a healing force, but nevertheless charts a recovery which could never have been achieved without landscape, wild creatures and “thin places”. It is also flocked with luminous details (moths, birds, feathers, skulls, moving water). Kerri’s voice is utterly her own, rich and strange. I’ve folded down the corners of many pages, marking sentences and moments that glitter out at me. Wow'
ROBERT MACFARLANE
'What was Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s burden as a child – to exist in "the gaps between" the Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland – has become her gift as a writer. She is sensitive to the legacies of loss and trauma and highly attuned to the gifts of the natural world and the possibilities of place. This is a special, beautiful, many-faceted book'
AMY LIPTROT
‘Dochartaigh takes great solace in nature, and much of the book is a meditation on the beautiful landscapes and flora and fauna that surround her . . . Passionate, moving and beautifully written, this is a remarkable account of trauma and ways to acknowledge and overcome it’
Sunday Times
’Powerful, unflinching . . . Part hymn to nature, part Troubles memoir . . . Vividly descriptive . . . Thin Places is at heart a survivor’s story located in the real and brutally Darwinian world of lived experience’
Guardian, Book of the Day
'An eloquent, moving work of politics, geography and the self. Full of wisdom and deeply engaging'
SINÉAD GLEESON
‘The power of place to heal trauma makes for a beautiful read . . . It contains moments of great beauty . . . It is heady, bright and difficult to pin down. It is also redemptive. The Irish word for hope, we are told, is dòchas or dòigh, which holds, within its roots, glimmers of dóighiúil, the word for giving. Ní Dochartaigh takes that hope and gives it to us all’
Big Issue
‘A beautiful and harrowing book about trauma, the potential to heal and the subtle magic of the wild. Kerri ní Dochartaigh offers us a fragile kind of redemption, full of truth and solace’
KATHERINE MAY
‘Ní Dochartaigh’s delight in wild things weaves a thread of light through her childhood, adulthood and the book itself . . . Acutely personal . . . Wonderfully evocative . . . This heartfelt memoir, with its message on the saving grace of nature, may speak to an even wider audience than it first imagined’
Daily Mail
‘A powerful, bracing memoir that asks what happens when a child grows up in a city that isn't safe . . . This is a book that will make you see the world differently’
Irish Times
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781786899637 |
| PRICE | £14.99 (GBP) |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Jen B, Reviewer
Thin Places is a beautifully-written memoir about the Troubles, trauma and healing.
Kerri Ní Dochartaigh crafts some stunning images and her prose sings from the page. Her descriptions of the thin places are almost incantations, transporting you straight to the Atlantic shores of Ireland. While it gets a little repetitive at times, I loved the rich mix of nature writing and mythology.
But the beauty is always held at counterpoint to the brutality of the Troubles. This is a raw and honest exploration of trauma - both personal and generational. Northern Ireland has a complex history and it's vital that we recognise the ongoing impact of violence and hope today.
Thin Places is an important and powerful read: haunting and hopeful in equal measures.
Sue P, Bookseller
Kerri ni Dochartaigh grew up in Derry in the very midst of the Troubles, and this is a visceral account of the lasting impact of that experience.
'Thin Places' is a richly satisfying read, harrowing at times, drawing in so many interesting themes - grief, loss, the solace of the natural world, the power of place, and of naming and language. There were so many passages that I wanted to highlight to read again, and ideas that I wanted to revisit.
Annette J, Reviewer
Thin Places by Kerri ni Dochartaigh may be one of the last books I read in the strange year that has been 2020 but it is also one of the best. I found myself slowing down to savour the beautiful words on the page and the vivid images they conjured. The book is part memoir, part nature writing and part history, taking the author's story of growing up in Derry as part of a mixed Faith family during the Troubles and showing how from a very young age her connection with the natural world was a grounding force and a safety net during difficult times.
The theme of borders, both natural and man made runs through the book which feels so current in the time of Brexit and all the particular concerns that the people of Northern Ireland have about the process. It is an incredibly personal piece of writing , the author is courageous enough to share some very dark moments from her past, but there is also a lot of hope , and so much beauty in her writing. Her descriptions of the natural world almost sing from the page , so lyrical, evocative and powerful. that I am in awe.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own .
Reviewer 392033
This is absolutely fantastic. Part memoir, part a love letter to nature, ni Dochartaigh explains what it was like to grow up during the Troubles in Derry, with both Catholic and Protestant parents, her own life caught in the balance of outrage in both communities. Her writing makes it perfectly clear that the societies we have built, in all their dark moments, are still abutted by the absolute glory in nature. I really, truly loved this, and wish I could read it again for the first time.
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