faber and faber 
 
   JOHN McGAHERN
       The Leavetaking
 
A day, crucial and cathartic, in thelife of a young Catholic schoolteacher who has returned to Ireland after a year's sabbatical in London, where he married an American divorcée. As a result he now faces certain dismissal by the school authorities. The novel recreates the story of how the man and the woman broke the shackles of guilt and duty and came to accept a ľulfilling adultlove. 'A beautiful, irresistible work of imagination.' Sunday Telegraph 'He has transformed situations and scenes common in experience into something rich and strange, something uncommonly beautiful. Sunday Independent The writing is controlled, precise and, at the same time, imaginatively elevated to a degree which makes this novel thrilling and memorable.' Sunday Times 'The Leavetaking represents 
an achievement of a very high order and substantiates the belief that its author is among the half-dozen practising writers of English prose most worthy of attention.' Times Literary Supplement