A young girl, un-dead and un-alive, brought to the shores of Iberia and nurtured to become the saviour of Madrid. A crippled boy drowning in the waters of Loughmichnois, called to preserve the secrets of a civilisation. A nun who instigates the bombing of Neo Dublin to reset a futureless people and start afresh.
Times of darkness, worlds seemingly beyond salvation, people who have never known joy. What do they have in common?
Three entirely different versions of Saint Ciarán to restore hope, faith, and brightness for humankind.
Praise for The Three Lives of St Ciarán
Weaving together history, myth, and dark visions of the future, Labarta creates a strange and beguiling exploration of Spanish and Irish identities. This is a beautifully written, subversive, and endlessly inventive novel.
- Naomi Krüger, author of May
The Three Lives of St Ciarán manages to be a transgressive, page-turning read - & at the same time, a deep meditation on gender, daughterhood, the climate crisis & the deep psycho-mythological connections between Ireland & Spain. Bearing meaning through time like Cloud Atlas, as disruptive of gender as The Passion of New Eve, the ground tilled by St Ciaran's multiple narrators is the urgent cultural interface of religion & the body.
- Eoghan Walls, author of The Gospel of Orla
Exciting and Provocative.
- Toby Litt, author of A Writer's Diary
Intricate, compelling and clever - I loved this book.
- Jenn Ashworth, author of Ghosted: A Love Story
