Modern Gods

Pulling from the real-life events of 1993, when a young supporter of the Ulster Freedom Fighters, a British loyalist paramilitary organization, shot up a small pub in Northern Ireland, Laird has written a truly superb novel exploring the possibilities and impossibilities of forgiveness. Protestant Kenneth and Judith Donnelly live in Ulster. They have three adult children: Liz has been living somewhat unhappily in the States after finishing her Ph.D. in anthropology; Allison has two small children and is planning to marry a mysterious local man whose background she hasn’t pushed to understand; and Spencer has a big secret of his own. Gathering at their parents’ house for Allison’s wedding, the family will have to confront the suddenly very personal echoes of the “troubles” of the past. Liz, meanwhile, will leave after the ceremony, on her own journey to a small island off the coast of Papua New Guinea, where she’ll be working on a BBC documentary. In a possibly heavy-handed move, Laird sends Liz to New Ulster, drawing a parallel between the two islands, thousands of miles apart, which seemingly share more than a name. “A lot of violence in these places,” Kenneth remarks, as Liz first announces her plans. “Where are ‘these places’?” Liz asks in turn, the very question Laird asks of himself and his readers. Though Liz’s experiences are salient, its Allison’s fate, thoroughly chilling and unsettling, that is the highlight. (June)