Description

LONGLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING
A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023: NATURE AND TRAVEL

When Kerri and her partner M moved to a small, remote railway cottage in the heart of Ireland they were looking for a home, somewhere to stay put. What followed was a year unlike any other.

Cacophony of Bone maps the circle of that year – a journey from one place to another, field notes of a life – from one winter to the next. It is a telling of a changed life, in a changed world – and it is about all that does not change. All that which simply keeps on – living and breathing, nesting and dying – in spite of it all.

This is an ode to a year, a place, and a love, that changed a life.

Publisher Review

[A] generous, glowing book. ni Dochartaigh is on intimate terms with the natural world . . . [and] Cacophony of Bone is distinctly innovative in form. This attention to form is a considerable narrative achievement. It [. . . ] persuades the reader to look, assess and imagine afresh * * Irish Times * * Raw, visionary, lucid and mystical, Cacophony of Bone speaks of the connection between all things, and the magic that can be found in everyday life -- KATHERINE MAY The delight of ni Dochartaigh's writing is her capacity to measure compassion against observation. Her wisdom is like water - too strong, and too elusive, to be hooked . . . This is the book's power - that it fills the needs of the person who stands before it . . . It is a book that creeps into the reader * * Caught by the River * * This is a brilliant second book from a unique and deeply gifted writer who constantly renews our sense of the natural world and the landscape of the heart -- KEVIN BARRY What joy, to find oneself once more in the world of Kerri Ni Dochartaigh, following her through the astonishments of her days, where each moment is deeply felt and each page is written with such nimble meticulousness. Cacophony of Bone is neat as a robin's nest, and just as wondrous -- DOIREANN Ni GHRiOFA A strange and beautiful book - a collage of glittering images, moments, feelings, sensations. A selection of shining objects gathered on windowsill for safekeeping. A careful record of a fulcrum year, with all its joys and pains laid out on the page; Kerri ni Dochartaigh is a prose poet with keen eyes and a huge heart -- CAL FLYN In Cacophony of Bone as in her previous work, Kerri has a deeply personal voice that feels as if it comes not from her, but from the earth beneath her -- MARC HAMER I am a little in awe of Kerri ni Dochartaigh's work - the clarity and disinhibition of her storytelling; the wild freedom of her prose. Here is a brave and bold book, and one that deserves to be read, then read again -- HELEN JUKES Cacophony of Bone is a book that touched me deeply. It's so vital, so brimming with life and love, and ni Dochartaigh's singular, addictive lyricism -- LUCY JONES In poems and essays, Ni Dochartaigh writes in exquisite detail of the seasons, beginning with the "ghost-trace, moon-white" and silent winter that kicks off a new phase of life * * Los Angeles Times * *