O’Connor on form with a novel that plays with the past

Fiction: Shadowplay, By Joseph O’Connor , Harvill Secker, €17.50

To be dramatically worthwhile, literary fiction is often dark and cruel to its characters, so it’s a pleasure to be in the company of an author who deals in humour, warmth and generosity. While reading Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor, I wore a perpetual grin on my face.

In Shadowplay, O’Connor sets his sights on Ireland’s own Bram Stoker, who serves as O’Connor’s narrator in ...