Kala -- Colin Walsh, Hardcover

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR - 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 thriller...Part heartfelt coming-of-age tale, part brutal Irish noir, this is a spectacular read for Donna Tartt and Tana French fans."--Kirkus

In the seaside town of Kinlough, on Ireland's west coast, three old friends are thrown together for the first time in years. They--Helen, Joe, and Mush--were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003, with motherless, reckless Kala Lanann as their group's white-hot center. Soon after that summer's peak, Kala disappeared without a trace.

Now it's fifteen years later: Helen has reluctantly returned to Ireland for her father's 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 mother's café.

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 Kala's 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.

Author: Colin Walsh
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Published: 07/25/2023
Pages: 416
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.55lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.20w x 1.70d
ISBN: 9780385549639

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2023
Publishers Weekly 06/05/2023
Booklist 07/01/2023 pg. 24

About the Author
COLIN WALSH's short stories have won several awards including the RTE Francis MacManus Short Story Prize and the Hennessy Literary Award. In 2019 he was named Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year. His writing has been published in the Stinging Fly, the Irish Times and broadcast on RTE Radio 1 and BBC Radio 4. Kala is his first novel. He is from Galway and lives in Belgium.