Red Sky in Morning: Riverrun

Paul Lynch was born in 1977 and is a novelist and critic. He was the chief film critic of Ireland'sSunday Tribunefrom 2007 to 2011. He writes regularly for theLondon Sunday Timeson film and has also written for theIrish Times,theSunday Business Post,theIrish Daily Mail,andFilm Ireland.He appears regularly on Irish radio and is a member of the Dublin Film Critics Circle. In 2011, theIrish Timescalled him one of Ireland's "finest film writers." He lives in Dublin.

"Lynch's language, which is musical, close, and alive, evokes something that seems quintessentially Irish....His combination of nightmarish poetry and heart-racing plot is what makesRed Sky in Morningso compelling, like a gorgeous, terrifying ghost story. You'll want to close your eyes and cover your ears, but find you can't turn away." ---Damaris Colhoun,Daily Beast
"Sumptuous and poetic....Lynch's sense of the period, and the huge disruptions in society which affected every single character, is clever and well informed, but he has taken a real and fascinating risk with the style." ---Colm Toíbín,The Guardian
"A novel of great beauty and violence from Irish writer Lynch....Lynch's poetic prose is gorgeous. He lovingly crafts every sentence."
---Kirkus Reviews
"Rendered in startlingly beautiful prose, not unlike the themes and style of Cormac McCarthy....This is strong stuff by a promising young author."
---Mark Levine,Booklist
"If Dublin-based Lynch's taut, absorbing, acerbically lyrical prose weren't enough, there's the intense and revelatory plot....Get it for all smart readers."
---Barbara Hoffert,Library Journal
"Paul Lynch has a sensational gift for a sentence, inherited from the likes of Cormac McCarthy, Sebastian Barry, and Daniel Woodrell. He is a writer to watch out for, staking a bid for a territory all his own."
---Colum McCann, author ofLet the Great World Spin
"This book makes the literary synapses spark and burn -- forged in his own new and wonderful language, Paul Lynch reaches to the root, branch and bole of things, and unfurls a signal masterpiece."
---Sebastian Barry, author ofThe Secret Scripture
"Paul Lynch takes a giant first step with his debut,Red Sky in Morning.It is classic storytelling, rough and haunted people and the times that made them, powerfully conjured, written in language that demands attention. Lynch is bardic, given to sly and inspired word selections, with his own sprung rhythms and angled, stark musicality."
---Daniel Woodrell, author ofWinter's BoneandThe Outlaw Album
"Paul Lynch's writing is full of dark invention and brutal beauty. A raw and audacious talent which grips Irish writing by the neck."
---Hugo Hamilton, author ofThe Speckled People
"A textured thriller straight from the torment of Ireland's 19th century. Paul Lynch delivers a raw ancient world that Dickens would have recognized, and Roberto Bolaño too."
---Peter Behrens, author ofThe Law of DreamsandThe O'Briens
"A cracking debut novel. Paul Lynch's startling, evocative prose veers closer to poetry.... This novel is a wonderful achievement."
---Kristoffer Mullin,The Sunday Times
"A compulsive read.... A combination of the poetic and the vicious. It unabashedly uses a 21st-century sensibility to subvert the conventions of the 'historical' novel."
---Arminta Wallace,Irish Times
"Muscular and opulent... the novel is ripe with spookily vivid writing. A very stylishly written book that takes the Irish novel into quite a different genre."
---The Examiner