Author(s): Evelyn Conlon

General

This is fiction with a sharp documentary edge: the story, set in Ireland and the US, of one woman's encounter with murder, justice and execution.
After the death of their parents, twins Maud and Malachy clear their house; Maud finds the hidden secret of a relation who was hanged in the 1940s. But she doesn't tell her brother, despite their closeness. It is obvious to her that the man was innocent, and she becomes obsessed by the subject. She finds out what information she can, visits the jail where he was hanged and eventually is drawn to America because that is the only place which executes in the same language.
This novel confronts the experience of capital punishment and the effect it can have. It is also about the love between twins, and the loss of balance when that relationship is interrupted.