Cacophony of Bone
Kerri ni Dochartaigh
Available as Paperback, Hardback, eBook, Downloadable audio
Longlisted for the Wainwright Prize, this lyrical and captivating meditation on nature, time and the meaning of home is the second book from the acclaimed author of Thin Places
LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING
A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023: NATURE AND TRAVEL
When Kerri and her partner M moved to a small, remote railway cottage in the heart of Ireland they were looking for a home, somewhere to stay put. What followed was a year unlike any other.
Cacophony of Bone maps the circle of that year – a journey from one place to another, field notes of a life – from one winter to the next. It is a telling of a changed life, in a changed world – and it is about all that does not change. All that which simply keeps on – living and breathing, nesting and dying – in spite of it all.
This is an ode to a year, a place, and a love, that changed a life.
“[A] generous, glowing book. ní Dochartaigh is on intimate terms with the natural world … [and] Cacophony of Bone is distinctly innovative in form. This attention to form is a considerable narrative achievement. It [… ] persuades the reader to look, assess and imagine afresh”
irish Times
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“Raw, visionary, lucid and mystical, Cacophony of Bone speaks of the connection between all things, and the magic that can be found in everyday life”
Katherine May
“The delight of ní Dochartaigh’s writing is her capacity to measure compassion against observation. Her wisdom is like water — too strong, and too elusive, to be hooked … This is the book’s power — that it fills the needs of the person who stands before it … It is a book that creeps into the reader”
caught By The River
“This is a brilliant second book from a unique and deeply gifted writer who constantly renews our sense of the natural world and the landscape of the heart”
Kevin Barry
“What joy, to find oneself once more in the world of Kerri Ní Dochartaigh, following her through the astonishments of her days, where each moment is deeply felt and each page is written with such nimble meticulousness. Cacophony of Bone is neat as a robin’s nest, and just as wondrous”
Doireann Ní Ghríofa
Kerri ni Dochartaigh
Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s first book, Thin Places, was published in Spring 2021, for which she was awarded the Butler Literary Award 2022, and highly commended for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2021.
Cacophony of Bone is her second book. She lives in the west of Ireland with her family.
@kerri_ni