After a period of imprisonment, Nealon returns to an empty house in the west of Ireland to find his wife and young son missing. Then he gets a call from a man who claims to know what's happened to them—a man who'll tell Nealon all he needs to know in return for a single meeting. In a hotel lobby, in the shadow of an unfolding terrorist attack, Nealon and the man embark on a conversation shot through with secrets and unknown dangers, a verbal game of cat and mouse that ranges from Nealon's past and crimes to Ireland's place in the world order to the location of his family.
Works like a thriller without a resolution. Though we occupy Nealon’s thoughts, he turns them toward everything except his arrest, so we have little sense of his alleged crimes, much less of his guilt or innocence ... A novel about opacity is bound to be gimmicky; on one level, all Mr. McCormack is doing is promising and then withholding information. But I recommend This Plague of Souls even so, as it marks a memorable attempt to evoke the murky contemporary relationship between individuals and unseen global systems.
Masterful narrative skill ... What matters is the intensity of Nealon’s reflections as he gathers himself back into his life. McCormack’s language is evocative, perfectly suited to the noirish atmosphere he builds throughout the book ... This is a strange novel, sinister yet hopeful, a descent into darkness that somehow manages to rise into a ringing light.
Interesting ... A fully fledged tale of the unexpected ... ot everyone will love this book and its mysteries — the way it acknowledges but estranges the reader — but those who do will not forget it. Imagine if all writers took this much trouble.
