Martin Howe - Böcker

In this gripping story of betrayal by friends, family and the church, Martin Howe explores the relationship between individuals and a society which holds moral codes of behaviour in high regard. White Linen exposes the corrupting influence such constraints can have at all levels of society and on many of the people concerned.Set in Dublin in the mid-1990s, the action centres on the closure of the last remaining ‘Magdalen Laundry’, where women who had transgressed moral boundaries were sent. The book follows four of the ‘Magdalen women’ who have spent the best part of their lives confined there and working for no pay. Readers join the women as they have their final drink at the local bar before going their separate ways. The emotions of leaving prompt the women to reminisce, revealing profoundly shocking secrets which fundamentally change everything they believed about themselves and their so-called friends. Relationships that have endured for decades are fractured, new bitter-sweet alliances are briefly formed, and everyone emerges in a different light. It all comes together in a surprising revelatory ending.White Linen is about ageing and the compromises that are made with a painful past that appears to grow more alluring over time. The narrative deals uncompromisingly the imperfections of memory, but is also a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Above all, the novel tells of the moral hypocrisy and the appalling treatment of women by society, sanctioned by the religious establishment of the time.

Britain, 1930s. Tony Cox, out-of-work, finds himself swept up in a wave of right-wing activism - mass rallies, charismatic leadership and public violence. Rising through the ranks of the British Union of Fascists, he is interned at the outbreak of the Second World War. Upon his release, Tony reinvents himself, burying his history from everyone, including the one person who truly loves him: his grandson. But when a violent secret from the past emerges, Tony’s world is brought crashing down around him.Britain, 1990s. David Coxon-Dyet looks up to Tony. He knows nothing about his secret past, but as his personal life collapses and David is faced with redundancy and economic insecurity, the terrible truth about his grandfather is revealed.Betrayed by the actions of others, both grandfather and grandson take extreme measures to wrest back control. For these men in the street the consequences are profound.

Coming Down is a novel about falling - falling in love, falling from grace, falling foul, falling apart, falling free. A story of addiction, drug dealing and sky-diving. At its vertiginous centre one man’s commitment to making money and living life to excess. An unprincipled hero with huge appetites for women, designer clothes and drugs, guided by a criminal code that allows him free rein to exploit the real and virtual networks of the global era.The exhilarating drama of a high altitude free fall over the desert coastline of southern California provides the narrative structure for Coming Down. Each chapter brings the hero, X, closer to the earth. As he hurtles downwards his thoughts and feelings about falling provide the cement that binds the key events in his life into a revelatory whole that opens the way to understanding why he is, where he is, plunging towards the Pacific Ocean at terminal velocity. Falling is central to Coming Down and each chapter is “book-ended” with startling biblical, literary, scientific, and journalistic extracts, both serious and humorous, about falling. Some are of only tangential relevance to the plot, others of vital importance.