That had a touch of the surreal about it which I half expected from Falling Animals, given it’s slightly disconcerting, rather lovely cover, but Armstrong’s novel is not at all fantastical. If you’ve enjoyed the quiet, introspective work in the style of Gráinne Murphy, Donal Ryan and Claire Keegan, you will adore Falling Animals.

I chose this after having read about it in a News paper review to help me find a good read which I so often do. I don't think my explanation is helping much to sell the book which is a shame because it is beautiful, poetic, sad, lyrical and utterly absorbing. Some of us leapt overboard, iron shackles around our ankles, rather than become slaves to heartless men.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. This is Sheila Armstrong's first novel after the widely acclaimed short story collection, How To Gut A Fish. The only issue is that the book seems to lose focus from this and concentrate on the lives of these other characters, which I enjoyed aspects of, but ultimately found myself constantly thinking 'yes, but what about the man? She had fallen in love with this small place, where the sunsets smear themselves across the sky and drown themselves in the temperamental sea, where the clouds skate across her windows like a stopmotion film. He's buried months later after a lengthy investigation - but the impact on the community that found him leaves a mark and it's shaped by the major incident that effects their lives.

Sheila Armstrong is in love with the world and its people, and that love shines out clearly in this luminous novel; a novel built on the stories of one small village, shaken loose when a body falls unannounced on the beach. At seventeen, Nessa is too young and too old, too naïve and too cynical, and Teresa cannot find the words to make her daughter understand how cruel the world can be to bright women.Despite glowing reviews from GR readers I follow, I was hesitant to pick up this debut novel by Sheila Armstrong, for no other reason than she is Irish. He was buried in an unmarked grave with only 6 people present at his funeral and his identity remains unknown still. Each of the chapters did an excellent job of fully realising the different perspectives of the villagers.

A debut novel already receiving great plaudits and all very much deserved, Falling Animals is quite unlike anything I have read before. The officer in charge jumps at what seems a lead that will close the case only to feel a fool when it proves to be a fraud. Armstrong’s novel is a mosaic of narratives written from the perspective of villagers, sailors, professionals and witnesses all of whom have some connection with the unidentified man, from the homeless refugee who’s spotted his backpack and made use of it to the Australian priest who thinks he may have met him.I was worried towards the middle where we veered quite off piece, but circled back round to the central mystery of the man on the beach. Through vignettes, we get to know the people in the village, and around the world, that came into contact with whoever this man was. Interestingly, though Armstrong uses a real life event to inspire her novel, on June 16th, 2009, the body of a man (later identified as Peter Bergmann) was discovered on a beach in Sligo and, to this day, how he ended up there is shrouded in mystery. The author then imagines the impact of the finding of the death of the stranger on a variety of characters connected with either the town where he was found (a beach resort struggling in the wake of the economic crisis) or – we find over time – associated with the man.