The River and Enoch O'Reilly — Peter Murphy

A small Irish town. A river flood. The return of a prodigal son. On the banks of the river Rua, when the rains have stopped and the waters receded, nine bodies are found. What took them to the river?

Enoch O'Reilly, a self-made preacher and Elvis impersonator claiming to be just returned to Ireland from America, launches a radio show Revival Hour. It enjoys a short but spectacular run, and its disastrous end forces Enoch back to the family home. There he finds clues to a mythic connection between the dead -- this brotherhood of the flood -- the natural rhythms of the earth, a secret language called Riverish, and his lost father.

Conjuring together various traditions -- gothic, Irish, Southern, music, poetry, our deep connections to stories, to our homelands, and to nature -- Peter Murphy establishes himself as one of Ireland's newest literary wonders.