to communicate. •mona, hiswife wants him to talk to her, unlikeother wives in the book but Bobbysays 'I wish to God I could talk to herthe way she wants me to, besides forever making her guess what I'm thinking'. He is a man who even in schoolfelt he had to hide who he really was,what he was really capable of. Thenovel follows his efforts to overcomethis inheritance and, through him, thetown can do them same. And maybe wecan too.

JOSIEFather of Eamon, Pokey and Mags. Hereveals that he never like his secondson and only gave him the business tocompensate. Knows that Pokey felt hisfather's unspoken emotional rejection but thisdoesn't meant that he can articulate it. Unspo-ken relationship problems fester only to eruptand affect the whole community.

LILYThe third character we meet in the novel isthe town prostitute. ms simple choice guidesour perception of the town and the tone of theunfolding na.rrative.

VASYAFrom Khakassia he, like Bobby, has lost hisjob thanks to Pokey incompetence.With little English, and poor prospects, Vasyahas enough intelligence to note that the locals'are fixed, rooted, bound to a certain place'. Hemight have included a certain family.

REALTINShe lives in Pokey ghost estate withonly one other occupied house. Her dad cutsthe grass for all those houses, finished ornot. Realtin has had a baby by her solicitoremployer (more recession references) buthas tricked Seanie Shaper into thinkinghis. Then Bobby Moore arrives to help her

out with the snag list for her house, he feelsresponsible for the houses he built, even if

the obligation wasn't his. Bobby catches her

eye and she does everything she can to seduce

him. It doesn't work. Her son, Dylan, gets

kidnapped.

TIMMYEvery town needs a town fool. Timmy is thefool here. freated abysmally by some, but withrespect by Bobby, like all town fools he can seewhat others don't.$

BRIANA fan of Bobby Moore he believes the rumoursabout the affair with Realtin because 'Bobbyis a pure bull, though...He probably rides thetwo of them everyday'. Brian's heading off toAustralia under the guise of emigration butreally just for the craic.

TREVORfroubled frevor sees demons and watchesgirls with wraparound shades. He wants tokidnap Dylan, and maybe kill his mother andDorothy, his friend and neighbour ofRealtin.

BRIDIEHer second son died many years ago and shehas never gotten over it. She witnesses a tensemoment between Bobby and his father.

JASONA troubled man who covered his face intattoos to impress a girl. He fathered her childand then she dumped him.

HILARYA friend of Realtin. Well. kind of a friend.

4

She's not really that impressed with Realtin'spredatory approach to relationships. Not im-pressed with Realtilfi chasing of Bobby She iseven less forgiving of rural life: 'They all spendtheir whole lives going to Mass and playingGAA and eating farm animals and cabbageand not saying how they're feeling until toolate and then BANG!'

SEANIEDepression hangs over this chapter. Seaniewants to talk about it, but to whom?

KATEKate seems to represent the money hungrycapitalists that emerged during the boom.The owner of a creche she bends the rules tosuit herself. Child/ minder ratios are ignored.Minimum wage ignored. References not fullychecked out. Her Soprano watching husbandis ignored. It'll all come back to haunt her.

LLOYDfrevor's friend and accomplice in the kidnap-ping of Dylan. Seems just as delusional as

RORYAnother victim of PokeyBurke. Rory, though,was saved by Bobby for whom he now works.Poor Rory can't talk to women. Destroyed by alack of self-confidence he can't gather enoughbelief to talk to girls, even when they give himtheir number. Off to London to work on thebuildings going up for the 2012 Olympics, asymbol of hope ifever there was one.

MILLICENTThe young daughter of bickering parents.

unemployed and struggling, barely find-ing work in Tescos. The granddaughter of Lily.

DENISHusband of Kate and close to the edge. Suf-fering from an aggressive form of depressionbrought on by the destruction of his masculin-ity through job loss and a domineering wife,and an inability to articulate these issues. Hisweak mental state drives him to murder Bob-

dad, for which Bobby was blamed.

MAGSThe daughter of Pokey's parents. Without thefull support of her father she finds coming outto her family dimcult.

JIMThe local Garda that is smart enough to listento Timmy and follow the clues to kid-nappers.xnows Bobby never killed Frank butcan't prove it.

FRANKThe dead get a chapter. Here we see howFrank was created by his own (ather and howBobby was strong enough to escape the familytrend.

TRIONA.She wants to talk. She wants to help. She isthe reason Bobby is the heroic character thathe is. In fact it is IYiona that is the hero. Shetakes no notice of the rumours, she forces herhusband to talk. She can see the bad in Pokeyeven before he had the chance to develop it.Women don't come out too well in this novelbut friona serves to compensate for this. Justabout.