Few and Far Between: The stunning new novel from the winner of the EU Prize for Literature
Apr 2026 · Random House
Ebook
368
Pages
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infoThis book will become available on April 9, 2026. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this ebook
From the award-winning author of The Raptures and The Fire Starters, a stunning, imaginative novel about a community living on a small group of islands. Sometimes a utopia is not all that it seems...
In Few & Far Between, award-winning writer Jan Carson, imagines an alternative version of Northern Ireland’s recent past. A prime minister with a mad plan to create a new county. An archipelago of haunted islands. A community seeking refuge from the Troubles. The perfect place to escape to - or so it appears.
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. How will they cope with modern life? Will the Ark give up its secrets before it sinks? Can they leave the past behind?
_____
Praise for Jan Carson:
'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. Exactly how it should be' 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
'[The Fire Starters] blew me away with its power, anger and wit' Joseph O'Connor, Books of the Year
'One of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation.' Sunday Times
'Absolutely magnificent: dark, witty, charming' Marian Keyes, author of My Favourite Mistake
'Heart-rending, hilarious . . . It's a belter.' Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses
In Few & Far Between, award-winning writer Jan Carson, imagines an alternative version of Northern Ireland’s recent past. A prime minister with a mad plan to create a new county. An archipelago of haunted islands. A community seeking refuge from the Troubles. The perfect place to escape to - or so it appears.
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. How will they cope with modern life? Will the Ark give up its secrets before it sinks? Can they leave the past behind?
_____
Praise for Jan Carson:
'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. Exactly how it should be' 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
'[The Fire Starters] blew me away with its power, anger and wit' Joseph O'Connor, Books of the Year
'One of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation.' Sunday Times
'Absolutely magnificent: dark, witty, charming' Marian Keyes, author of My Favourite Mistake
'Heart-rending, hilarious . . . It's a belter.' Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses
About the author
Jan Carson is a writer 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 most recent short story collection, Quickly, While They Still Have Horses, was published in 2024. 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 Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize.
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