Lowertown is the home of the fictional Brislin family, and the setting for this narrative. At its heart it is the story of two young Irish brothers, Richard and Hugh, and the paths they take which put them on a collision course during the most vicious period of a city’s violent past.

I pushed onward, on the sandy beach determined to meet the old man. he was the source, after all, the library from whence all the stories came. He didn’t know i was coming. There was no way to communicate with him this far down the island. but somehow, i thought, it would be all right; he wouldn’t mind.