This Human Season Book

This Human Season is a tragedy unlike any I've come across. Set in a prison in Northern Ireland known as The Maze, or Long Kesh, Louise Dean's novel tells the stories of two families in and outside the prison leading up to the hunger strike that took place in the prison, in real life, at the end of 1980 and the start of 1981.

Because of the true-to-life nature of the events Dean describes, the stories of the two families is that much more harrowing. The novel revolves largely around a mother, Kathleen, whose son is one of the prisoners about to go on strike, and a British prison guard, John, who works on the block Kathleen's son is incarcerated in.

Dean's command of prose is remarkable, and the effort that she has put into researching these real-life events is always evident in the text. We are treated to the insights of a mother whose family is falling apart, and it seems there is little she can do to effect a change. Her husband is an alcoholic who revels in living in fictional stories of his past; her son is a political prisoner in a Northern Irish prison during a time of deep political turmoil; she has one daughter who has already abandoned the family and moved abroad; another daughter who she cannot connect with nor relate to; and a younger son who idolises his older brother and aspires to join him in prison. Kathleen's is a bleak life that cannot help but slowly break your heart.

John's half of the novel is similarly expertly written, capturing wonderfully and thus also tragically the story of a British prison guard working at a time when his fellow British colleagues are being murdered on the streets in reaction to the incarceration of the Irish prisoners.

The politics of the novel run deep, because that is precisely how deep they run in reality. But one does not need a thorough understanding of the history between Britain and Ireland - both Northern and the Republic - in order to appreciate the tale Dean tells in This Human Season. The title says it all; it is a story that speaks of humanity, and that is a universal that we can all understand. These are human stories we find in Kathleen and John, and Dean makes her characters so easy to relate to. It is a novel in no uncertain terms that has tragedy at its core, but it is not without its moments of hope, that perhaps things will not always be this way. Dean truly cements herself with this novel as one of the best writers in contemporary English literature. It is a powerful second novel, and it is quite unlike anything I have ever had both the pleasure and sadness of reading before. It is perfect.