Seán Hewitt All Down Darkness Wide 2022 Jonathan Cape 2022

Synopsis

<p><b>WINNER OF THE 2022 ROONEY PRIZE FOR IRISH LITERATURE<br> SHORTLISTED FOR THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2022</b><br> <br> <b>'A remarkable memoir of love and sorrow' <i>Observer</i></b><br> <br> <b>A luminous and haunting memoir from the prize-winning poet - a story of love, heartbreak and coming of age, and a fearless exploration of queer identity and trauma.</b><br> <br> When Seán meets Elias, the two fall headlong into a love story. But as Elias struggles with severe depression, the couple comes face-to-face with crisis. Wrestling with this, Seán Hewitt delves deep into his own history, enlisting the ghosts of queer figures and poets before him. From a nineteenth-century cemetery in Liverpool to the pine forests of Gothenburg, Hewitt plumbs the darkness in search of solace and hope.<br> <br> <i>All Down Darkness Wide</i> is an unflinching meditation on the burden of living in a world that too often sets happiness and queer life at odds, and a tender portrayal of what it's like to be caught in the undertow of a loved one's suffering. By turns devastating and soaring, it is a mesmerising story of heartache and renewal, and a work of rare and transcendent beauty.<br> <br> <b>*Longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2023*<br></b><b>*Longlisted for the Polari Book Prize 2023*</b><br> <br> <b>'</b><b>A stunning meditation on love and heartbreak, this feels like an essential work of the new Irish queer canon' <i>Sunday Times</i></b></p>