Book - BookDetective

Name: Carry Me Down

Author: M. J. Hyland
Year: 2006
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Genres/categories:
Award winners, Fiction
Culture: Ireland

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ISBNs:
9781841958781
1841958786

John Egan is a misfit - "a twelve year old in the body of a grown man with the voice of a giant" - who diligently keeps a "log of lies." John's been able to detect lies for as long as he can remember, it's a source of power but also great consternation for a boy so young. With an obsession for the Guinness Book of Records, a keenly inquisitive mind, and a kind of faith, John remains hopeful despite the unfavorable cards life deals him.
This is one year in a boy's life. On the cusp of adolescence, from his changing voice and body, through to his parents' difficult travails and the near collapse of his sanity, John is like a tuning fork sensitive to the vibrations within himself and the trouble that this creates for he and his family.
Carry Me Down is a restrained, emotionally taut, and sometimes outrageously funny portrait whose drama drives toward, but narrowly averts, an unthinkable disaster.