Description

‘An absolute tour de force … One of the most powerful writers at work today’ COLIN WALSH
‘When the book burners knock on your door, this is one to hide in the flour barrel’ ANNIE PROULX
‘I’ll read almost anything in sentences so finely made’ SARAH MOSS
‘Songlike in its beauty … A work of uncanny power and great depth’ LOUISE KENNEDY

From a rising star in literary fiction comes a story of two discoveries made deep in an Irish bogland, threading together four lives across time.

When a dog finds a strange, alien antler in a restored bog, the owner’s first thought is to keep it for himself. But when he realises the value of his find, he is drawn back to the rich peat to keep searching. It is not one stag skeleton that is buried there, but dozens – an ancient dying ground of the Great Irish Elk.

Other things have surfaced from the bog: prehistoric settlements, bronze cauldrons, ancient butter, iron weapons – and the mutilated body of a two-thousand-year-old female. Fifty years ago, a young archaeologist named her Belroe Woman, and dedicated his life to telling the story of her sacrificial death.

While state and public treat the bog body as a national treasure, others must reckon with its otherworldly influence over their lives: the peat-cutter who first unearthed her and carries this discovery like a curse; the archaeologist’s daughter who grows up in the shadow of the bog’s strange magnetism; and the young environmental scientist whose work draws her back to where it all began.

Haunting and lyrical, The Red Mouth – an beal rua – is the story of two discoveries and the four strangers who become intertwined in their wake. The deep time of the bog is both mystical and sinister: those bound to it must decide what to bury – and what to unearth.

‘Meditative and profound … Exquisitely written’ GUARDIAN
‘With elegant prose and quiet confidence, Armstrong has produced a novel of rare depth and originality’ IRISH INDEPENDENT

Publisher Review

A story is best if there is something ancient and inexplicable embedded in it. Here is a bog, ancient animal and human remains, archaeologists and their people, and time. The Red Mouth is rich in sentences filled with electric barbwire. Sheila Armstrong is a virtuoso stylist who handles words with Nabokovian surety. Her sentences are like paintings, Irish words caught in the net of her remarkable imagery like migrating birds. When the book-burners knock on your door this is one to hide in the flour barrel — ANNIE PROULX, author of Brokeback Mountain Songlike in its beauty, The Red Mouth feels almost primordial, as if it has always existed. A work of uncanny power and great depth — LOUISE KENNEDY, author of Trespasses Sheila Armstrong writes about landscapes and their communities with rare delicacy and warmth, and with a gift for the unspoken rooted in the best stories of quiet people. I’ll read almost anything in sentences so finely made — SARAH MOSS, author of Ghost Wall Reading Sheila Armstrong is like reading Claire Keegan or Donal Ryan for the first time. A writer already touched by greatness — JOSEPH O’CONNOR, author of My Father’s House The beautifully occulted nature of the world is laid bare in Sheila Armstrong’s extraordinary The Red Mouth. Readers will be enthralled and taken deep into the depths of this mesmerizing novel — JEFF VANDERMEER, author of The Southern Reach Trilogy An absolute tour de force of language, The Red Mouth pulses with beauty, insight and mounting dread. Sheila Armstrong is one of the most powerful writers at work today – she delves unflinchingly into the treasures and terrors that dwell beneath all our ordinary and extraordinary lives. This novel is a remarkable artistic achievement — COLIN WALSH, author of Kala A phenomenal novel – expansive, funny and so, so beautiful. To read Sheila Armstrong is a unique experience. The Red Mouth has a hallucinatory quality, and its characters still haunt me. One of the best reading experiences I’ve had in years — LOUISE NEALON, author of Snowflake Each Sheila Armstrong book is better than the last and The Red Mouth is a particularly accomplished piece of writing. Polyphonic, ingenuous and so deftly written every scene is painterly. Her writing keeps careful time with the landscape, language and rich traditions of Ireland, making this a novel with one eye trained on the past and the other soldered to the here and now — JAN CARSON, author of The Raptures Armstrong writes with such sensitivity to the repercussions of history, and such keen attention to the particularities and peculiarities of human and animal behaviour. A truly remarkable, exquisitely composed novel — SARA BAUME, author of Seven Steeples The Red Mouth is a work of great emotional depth and psychological insight – to read Armstrong’s writing is to be enriched — ALAN MURRIN, author of The Coast Road Sheila Armstrong unearths a story of deep relevance in these difficult times, tying our fates to the land and our relationship to our past, present and future. Told in beautiful, rich prose with deep affection for the bog, its traditions and secrets, giving us a mirror to examine ourselves with, and a place to hide all our shame and sins. The bog seeps into your psyche, it becomes alive, dense with seasons, secrets, and eventually solace. Armstrong reveals so much about our true natures with stunning sentences and dark humour. A masterpiece — OLIVIA FITZSIMONS, author of The Quiet Whispers Never Stop The Red Mouth has floored me, not just once, but possibly every second sentence. Sheila Armstrong is one of those writers whose work you know will be around well beyond her lifetime. A stunning read, The Red Mouth brims with sublime prose and vital reflections on human and environmental frailty — ANNE GRIFFIN, author of When All is Said A beautiful, elemental and lyrical novel, capturing the undertow of lives through that staggering Irish metaphor of the bog, suggesting a legacy of community and self sacrifice rather than violence. Assured and devastating with a rare poetic intelligence — UNA MANNION, author of A Crooked Tree What a deep joy, to find oneself immersed in the world of The Red Mouth. Here is a book that is alive to texture and sound and human inquisitiveness, a book that is alive to wonder and digging and determination and love. Here is a book that is alive — DOIREANN Ni GHRiOFA, author of A Ghost in the Throat The Red Mouth is utterly mesmerising; a timely and deeply compelling meditation on the fragility of the natural world and the interconnectedness of human lives. Written in breathtakingly original prose, it is a triumph of imagination and empathy from one of Ireland’s most talented writers — ROISIN O’DONNELL, author of Nesting A rich, unnerving, singular work of fiction that works, in style and substance, with deep time — NIAMH CAMPBELL, author of We Were Young Perfect for reading under a tree in a summer garden, richly immersed in nature as it is — Eilis Ni Dhuibhne * Irish Times * A dazzling second novel as layered as the bog itself … Our culture is apt to imagine that time is buried, that all that is past lies tucked away; and Armstrong’s achievement in this tremendous novel is to put paid to such notions, to remind us that the past breathes and casts its spells minute by minute across our daily lives — Neil Hegarty * Irish Times * Exquisite … This vivid lyricism calls to mind other Irish writers such as Paul Lynch or Sara Baume … Looking farther afield, the reading experience resembles that of Samantha Harvey’s Booker-winning Orbital … In Armstrong’s meditative and profound novel, such uncertainty, so exquisitely rendered, is more than enough to sustain us to the end — Ruth Gilligan * Guardian * The Red Mouth is deeply concerned with what lies beneath, both literally and metaphorically … Armstrong explores how history refuses to remain buried, continually shaping identities, decisions and relationships. With elegant prose and quiet confidence, Armstrong has produced a novel of rare depth and originality — Estelle Birdy * Irish Independent * Strange and beautiful … The Red Mouth blends ancient savagery with modern life, deftly referencing the Troubles, domestic conflict, industrial greed and pollution … The author has an almost physical intimacy with nature and landscape: sensuous, rhapsodic, calling to mind Seamus Heaney’s ‘bog poems’ — Lee Langley * Spectator *