Sue Hubbard and Bernie McGill arrive at this year’s festival with two novels that have garnered rave reviews from every corner.  Tonight they will read from Rainsongs and The Watch House.

Sue Hubbard’s Rainsongs conjures the rugged beauty of County Kerry’s coastline and the inner landscapes of its characters in richly poetic and painterly language. It unfolds as a compelling tale of grief, art, and the fragile, quiet ways in which time and place can offer a measure of redemption.

In Bernie McGill’s The Watch House, during the summer of 1898, on the small Irish island of Rathlin strangers have arrived from the mainland, laden with mysterious radio equipment. When native Nuala Byrne is sent to cook for the Italian engineer Gabriel, she becomes enthralled by the world of knowledge that he brings from beyond her own narrow horizons. It is  a gripping novel, beautiful and lyrical, tender and fierce.

Book at Belfast Book Festival.