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Drombeg Books

The Master's Choice, John A Nix

The Master's Choice, John A Nix

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Here is a book from beyond the grave. Written circa 1931, it is seen here for the first time in more than eighty years. The manuscript was discovered among the papers of the author’s daughter on her death and has been prepared for publication by his grandson. John A Nix was one of the old-style gentleman journalists, a Latin scholar, fluent in French and a devotee of English and European literature. He was born into a fine Georgian house in County Limerick and subsequently reared on an island in the Shannon estuary, where the privations experienced undoubtedly formed his decision to use education as a vehicle for escape. This novel, which turns out to be partly autobiographical, was written ten years into Ireland’s independence with a population unsteadily finding its feet. Charting Marley Swanton’s journey from schoolteacher to journalist, it provides a delightful study of the foibles of a peasant but proud people who show themselves to be rich in intelligence, and well able to express themselves. Our hero’s heart has been stolen by a farmer’s daughter, Finola Macara, and his every endeavour is geared towards winning her heart. It is an Everyman story but told with a searingly accurate observation of the human condition and with a great sense of humour. The language may be difficult at the outset, but this rich Hiberno-English of another age, familiar to Joyce, Beckett, Shaw and Yeats, is beautiful in its vocabulary and rhythm and ultimately proves to be hugely rewarding for the reader.

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