Wild Decembers

Edna O'Brien's masterly novel charts the quick and critical demise of relations between Joseph Brennan and Mick Bugler - "the warring sons of warring sons" - in the countryside of Western Ireland. With her inimitable gift for describing the occasions of heartbreak, O'Brien brings Joseph's live for his land to the level of his sister Breege's love for both him and his rival, Bugler.