Summary

Solar Bones is narrated by the ghost of Marcus Conway, an engineer, in the present tense. The novel opens with Conway sitting at his kitchen table on All Souls’ Day, listening to the Angelus bell ring. Conway says the bell is “a summons,” which gathers all the parish together (2). Conway reveals he lives in a village outside of Louisburgh on the west coast of Ireland, where he has lived there all his life, and where he knows everyone in the community.

Conway reflects on his country, remembering the “recent economic collapse” on the “feast of the archangel Michael,” when Ireland’s banking system plummeted. Conway reveals that his county has “a political reflex” rooted in “a sense of sinfulness” due to all the medieval churches in the county (9). Conway remembers that his father worked in construction at a time when the government...