Jan Carson is a writer and community arts facilitator based in Belfast. Her first novel, Malcolm Orange Disappears, was published in 2014 to critical acclaim, followed by a short-story collection, Children''s Children (2016), and two flash fiction anthologies, Postcard Stories (2017) and Postcard Stories 2 (2020). Her second novel, The Fire Starters (2019), won the EU Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Dalkey Novel of the Year Award and her third novel, The Raptures (2022) was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year and the Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and on BBC Radio 3 and 4. She has won the Harper''s Bazaar short-story competition and has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, the An Post Irish Short Story of the Year, and the Sean O Faolain Short Story Prize. She specializes in running arts projects and events with older people, especially those living with dementia.>

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Jan Carson

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From the award-winning author of The Raptures and The Fire Starters, a magically surreal novel about history, identity and redemption

'A stunningly original novel... one of the most imaginative and talented Irish writers at work today' Roisín O'Donnell, author of Nesting

'No writer captures the absurdity and beauty of life quite like [Jan Carson] does' Sara Baume, author of Seven Steeples

'Warm, sharp and gloriously funny' Sarah Moss, author of Ripeness

'Her best book yet' Heather Parry, author of Carrion Crow

It's summer 2017 and the last few residents of the Lough Neagh Archipelago are facing imminent eviction. The flood planned to combat a devastating algae outbreak will submerge their homes, forcing them back to the Mainland for the first time in fifty years.

Robert-John and Marion Connolly came to the islands as children in the 1970s, following their mercurial father, an anthropologist studying the unique society that had developed there. For many, the Neagh Archipelago represented a utopia, a chance to be free of the prejudices and history of Troubles era Northern Ireland. But perhaps this utopia wasn't all that it seemed.

Marion and Robert-John have grown accustomed to their haunted existence on the Ark, monitoring the mysterious Far Side, where ghostly figures linger and the land swallows secrets whole. How will they cope with a new life on the Mainland? Is it possible to leave the past behind? And will the Ark ever let them go...

'No one writes like Jan Carson. Surreal times call for surreal stories, and Few and Far Between packages history, horror and redemption in her signature combination of humour and grace.' Sheila Armstrong, author of Falling Animals

'Jan Carson is a born storyteller: her work is so imaginative, whimsical, mischievous and brave, but tender and curious too - you never know where she's going to take you next, so reading her is always an adventure.' Lisa McInerney, author of The Glorious Heresies

'Jan Carson is a unique and very special writer, one of the greatest of the modern fabulists' Donal Ryan, author of Heart be at Peace

'One of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation.' Sunday Times