The Only Glow of the Day by Martin Malone

The Only Glow of the Day

Martin Malone

Dublin 1863. Pregnant 18-year-old, Rosanna Doyle, prepares to follow her man to his army camp in the Curragh. We instinctively fear the worst for her and, sure enough, the worst is what she finds. This bleak, but sublimely written book, packs a great deal into its short length, not least a brutal murder. However, it's the indomitable spirit of Rosanna that is the essence of the book and will have the reader rooting for her from start to finish

Extract
She breathed of how the pomp and glamour of the military seduced naive and innocent girls - the gilding on the uniform, their martial bearing, their money. You'd think such sights were specially designed to lure away the hearts of young women. Their camping grounds and tents, the flags, the plumes in the helmets all excited a young heart, made it susceptible to love that wasn't love at all, or maybe it was a type of love but not of the variety that lasted. Pretty soon it turned out that the girl was not wanted by the soldier nor by her family and her little money ran out.
Parallels
  • A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
  • Children of the Dead End by Patrick MacGill
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Violence
Explicit sexual content