The Resume Room

I can't play the trumpet. So sharing this instead - 🎺 5 out of 5 stars A Truly Great Novel Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2026 Format: Kindle I’m honored to write the first review for this breathtaking novel. This. Is. Phenomenal. One of the best books I've ever read. I accidentally found this book by an accidental novelist, and it’s the kind of experience I live for. You should too. Seriously. Read this. Then read it again. Craft-wise, it’s stunning. The land in both settings is as much a character as the people, and I’m all about that. Somehow, Ireland has always held something for me: a longing for a place I remember, but I’ve never seen. That is conveyed in this book in the most elegant, eloquent way. Repetition is used as skillfully as I’ve ever read. Most of the time, it’s the author “reminding” the reader of something, but Stephen Jaques uses it like a reverberation across time, a bell calling you to Mass, a path retraced. I never found it tiresome or unnecessary, and that’s an amazing feat. It’s an elegy, a song, and a triumph. The pace is like taking a walk on a country road. The book description is accurate to the story, and you know something of what is coming and can’t wait to READ it. Structurally, it’s sophisticated. The descriptions are spare but satisfying. I especially enjoyed that the characters are good people who have bad things happen to them, instead of the more common not nice people who . . . well, you know. There is a certain quality here that is languid and comforting and gives the words a tone of remembrance and respect for the people of Ireland. Clonfert bears witness to the suffering of the famine and to loss in all its forms. I read this on KU and ordered a paperback so that I can have it on my shelf. Thank you, Stephen, for this lovely novel.