Kala: A Novel

A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR NPR, THE GUARDIAN, THE INDEPENT, THE TABLET, AND CRIMEREADS A gripping literary page-turner from a rising Irish talent in which former friends, estranged for twenty years, reckon with the terrifying events of the summer that changed their lives. "[A] gritty heartbreaker of a thrillera spectacular read for Donna Tartt and Tana French fans."Kirkus A master class in building suspenseWalsh manages a deft balance between adolescent angst and ecstasy discoveries bringing horror, sorrow and joy and the more deliberate, often elegiac reflections of adulthood, reckoning with the promises of the past.The Washington Post In the seaside town of Kinlough, on Irelands west coast, three old friends are thrown together for the first time in years. TheyHelen, Joe, and Mushwere part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003,withmotherless, reckless Kala Lanann as their groups white-hot center. Soon after that summers peak, Kala disappeared without a trace. Now its fifteen years later: Helen has reluctantly returned to Ireland for her fathers wedding; Joe is a world-famous musician, newly back in town; and Mush has never left, too scared to venture beyond the counter of his mothers caf. But human remains have been discovered in the woods. Two more girls have gone missing. And as past and present begin to collide, the estranged friends are forced to confront their own complicity in the events that led to Kalas disappearance. Against the backdrop of a town suffocating on its own secrets, in a story that builds from a smolder to a stunning climax, Kala brilliantly examines the sometimes brutal costs of belonging, as well as the battle in the human heart between vengeance and forgiveness, despair and redemption.