Author(s): Robert Anthony Welch

Biography

'If I die, ' Egan Welch wrote in a note to his father, 'it is not alcohol that killed me. It's something else.' This title is an unforgettable many-layered story of the death of a son. It is a vivid, haunting personal tragedy, but Welch explores its roots in generations of Irish lives scarred by shame and disgrace, and reflects on the lawless energies that may be unleashed now that the constraining institutions and rituals of church and magic have lost their hold on people's minds