Published: 1996, Jonathan Cape Genre: Fiction Themes: northern ireland, the troubles, family My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤❤ While the library is closed I am re-reading some of the books on my own shelves and I'm glad the lockdown bought me back to this gem of a book. Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane is such an accomplished piece of writing that it could act as a real deterrent to lesser mortals to ever try to commit a story to paper. It tells the tale of a family in Northern Ireland who suffer over three generations because of the grandfather's political associations and the true story of a shadowy incident in the past is gradually revealed by his grandson. As I was about to write the paragraph above, I realised I couldn't think of the boy's name, and I turned back to the book to flip through the pages to find it. It was only then I discovered that the boy is never named but I didn't notice that at any point when I was reading the book. Each chapter is only a fe...