The Political Map of the Heart

Author: Pat Gray

Cover illustration: Penny Tridgell  

Absolutely wonderful! There's a strange tension about it, almost like a melodrama.....Beautiful, the way it links the history of Ireland with the troubles in the family. I loved it.

Lynn Barber in The Sunday Times

This convincing and evocative novel may lack the terrors of involvement and love across the sectarian divide, none the less, it explores the universal confusions and complexities of adolescence from an original perspective.

C.L. Dallat in The Times Literary Supplement

Pat's teenage romance with the lovely Elaine is tenderly related, their innocent relationship at odds with violence around them.With understated compassion, Gray shows a family torn apart and a love tainted by political divisions. His novel is blissfully free of sentimentality and endless rain that plagues so much Irish fiction.

Lisa Allardice in The Independent on Sunday