Foggage

'I'll bet the neighbours see me as an old maid and you as a sapless bachelor. Little do they know that there's more heat in this house than in all the other houses of the townland put together.' Foggage tells the story of Kevin Hurley and his twin sister Maureen, living in rural Ireland with their ailing, bed-ridden father. What makes this story unique, however, is that Kevin and Maureen have been conducting an incestuous relationship for the past three years. With as much twists and turns as a remote Irish boreen, McGinley's novel explores the tragic consequences of a relationship like no other. New Island is delighted to publish Foggage as part of its Modern Irish Classics series, which aims to give a new lease of life to some of the best of Irish writing of the last fifty years.



Patrick McGinley was born in Glencolmcille, Co. Donegal. He was educated at Galway University. Subsequently, he moved to London to work in book publishing. His novels include Bogmail (London, Martin Brian & O'Keeffe, 1978); Goosefoot (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1982); Fox Prints (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1983); Foggage (New York, St. Martin's Press, 1983/London, Jonathan Cape 1984); The Trick of The Ga Bolga (Jonathan Cape, 1985); The Red Men (Jonathan Cape 1987); The Devil's Diary (Jonathan Cape, 1988); and The Lost Soldier's Song (London, Sinclair Stevenson, 1994). His Donegal childhood and boyhood are described in his memoir, That Unearthly Valley, published by New Island in 2011.