One By One In The Darkness

One By One In The Darkness follows a week in the lives of three sisters shortly before the start of the IRA ceasefire in 1994, undercut by the story of their childhood in Northern Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s. It has a double narrative, part of which describes their childhood and shows the impact of the political changes and the violence of the late-1960s upon the people of Ulster, as the wholeness and coherence of early childhood gradually break down.

The history of both a family and a society, One by One in the Darkness confirms Deirdre Madden's reputation as one of Irish fiction's most outstanding talents.

"It is a personal and perceptive story of how a group of women face down tragedy by arming themselves, and each other, with their unity and attachment in the face of crisis and shared trauma. Ultimately, while the sisters acknowledge that the past has inevitably influenced their collective and individual reality, they are determined that life must go on and that their future – and that of their family and their homeland – remains unwritten." -  Rebecca Jones, Women's Library UK

Deirdre Madden Her novels include The Birds of Innocent Wood, Nothing is Black, One by One in the Darkness, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, and Authenticity. Her most recent novel Molly Fox's Birthday also was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. She teaches at Trinity College, Dublin and is a member of the Irish Arts Academy Aosdana.