Few and Far Between is a novel of big emotions caught in small words, and Carson weathers the line between fiction and fact with real skill ... Few and Far Between goes beyond her earlier novels, The Raptures and The Fire Starters, by soaking such visionary zeal in the concerns of a little society lost in its own depths and soon to be inundated ... Any literature can be given a co-ordinate and bearing, and sometimes a weather. Few and Far Between has all this, and something more, which is the imprint of a disappearing world taken shape in a new ... Carson has written a novel of the larger island we all inhabit, adrift in a sea of uncertainty.
Jan Carson works a peculiar magic in her inventive novel, Few and Far Between ... The well-plotted story gains gravitas from this sweep of history, but draws its haunting strength from its characters ... In contemporary Ireland the ordinary and the mystical can coexist, and the past is ever-present. Perhaps nowhere is this truer, Carson seems to say in this masterful novel, than in the time-scarred North.
A brilliant alternate history and a cracking read ... Carson paints a vivid picture of the setting and her characters, plumbing the depths of their psyches and the collective traumas that shape them ... Between the dry humor, the family drama, and the unique island setting, Carson hits all the right notes.
The book’s supernatural elements—including souls in a kind of bardo, women literally comatose with grief, and an island that eats dumped items—seem almost true to life set against the absurdity of the real-life drainage scheme, while also acting as moving manifestations of the idea that buried sins will always find a way to haunt the living ... An absorbing read for fans of family dramas, magical realism, and eco-fiction.
On the eve of the Troubles, Northern Ireland’s largest lake is drained to form a new county, in this stunning alternative history from Carson ... Carson portrays her eerie setting with deep intelligence and gritty realism. This is indelible.
