Into the Night Sky (Finnerty)

Into the Night Sky 
Caroline Finnerty, 2014
Poolbeg Press
326 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781781999929


Summary
Conor Fahy, owner of a struggling bookshop, is finding it hard to cope in the aftermath of his partner Leni’s tragic death. His friend Ella Wilde tries to be supportive but is herself in a fragile mental state—she has just been axed from her job as a TV presenter, having been caught shoplifting.

Then eight-year-old Jack White walks into Conor’s bookshop and settles down on the floor to read. Jack likes Ben 10, Giant Jawbreakers and Ronaldo. He likes his dad (when he doesn’t shout) but he doesn’t like the bad bugs that are eating up his ma inside her tummy.

Conor listens to the talkative boy but finds it hard to piece together what is really happening in his life. He is particularly mystified by Jack’s intense resentment of a woman called Rachel Traynor, not realising that she is a social worker assigned to Jack’s case and that Jack’s fate hangs in the balance.

They must each learn the healing power of love, and the need to let the past go and turn to the future. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—November 6, 1980
• Where—Kildare, Ireland
• Education—N/A
• Currently—Kildare, Ireland


Caroline Finnerty is an Irish author and freelance writer living on the banks of the Grand Canal in the County Kildare countryside with her husband, their three young children and their dog. She is the author of In a Moment, The Last Goodbye, and Into the Night Sky. She also compiled the charity anthology If I Was a Child Again in aid of Barnardos.

Caroline has written articles for The Irish Daily Mail, The Star, Woman’s Way Magazine, as well as several parenting magazines. (From the author.)

Visit the author's website.
Follow Caroline on Facebook.

Book Reviews
Impossible to put down.
Irish Independent

Discussion Questions
1. Did you feel empathy for Ella’s situation initially? What about afterwards?

2. There is strong use of imagery of the sea in Ella’s story, specifically her Martello Tower home situated on the rocks in Dublin Bay. Do you think that was intentional and does it add to the story?

3. Conor and Ella have been friends for a long time and share a close bond, do you think friendships between men and women can ever be truly platonic?

4. Rachel and Marcus have a seemingly perfect relationship except for the fact that he doesn’t want to have any more children. He is adamant that it is unfair to bring a child into the world when he doesn’t want it. Do you agree with this belief or do you think he should have relented so he could hold onto Rachel?

5. What did you think of John-Paul’s relationship with his son?

6. Do you agree with John-Paul’s solicitor when he argues in court that society has a natural bias towards women as mother figures?

7. Ella and her sister Andrea have very different attitudes to their mother’s desertion of their family as children. Why do you think this is?

8. Do you agree with Ella’s assertion that "every action has an equal and opposite reaction," i.e. that we must suffer the consequences of our actions?

9. Rachel mentions that you wouldn’t do her job if you didn’t have hope that people can change. How important is it to have this attitude in our everyday lives?

10. Who saves whom in this novel?

11. Which character do you think grew the most over the course of the story and why?

12. What do you think the future holds for Jack?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)

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