"I read everything from fantasy to science fiction to horror, to Jane Austen and Emily Brontë"
Dr Eoghan Smith reading at the book launch.
WHILE others were busy baking banana bread or perfecting their sourdough ‘mother’, Dr Eoghan Smith spent his time writing a book during the pandemic.
A provincial death is his second novel and it centres around a character who wakes up to find himself clinging to a rock in the middle of the sea. He has memory loss, so he has to figure out what led him to be clinging on for dear life while surrounded by a deep, undulating ocean.
“The reason he’s there is because he followed a woman who believes that the moon is going to crash into the Earth. It’s not a realistic piece of fiction,” explains Eoghan. “It’s about a sense of catastrophe and how you endure that feeling of being overwhelmed.
“It’s a story of survival, of trying to keep hope, of trying to endure in a world that can be overwhelmed by narratives of individual or societal or planetary catastrophe. It’s a book about how we are sustained by memories, about how humans find consolation in books and art and philosophy, about how we cope with the human struggle,” explains Eoghan.
Although Eoghan wrote the book during the pandemic, A provincial death is not about Covid-19.
“It’s not about the pandemic as such; no-one mentions Covid-19, but there is a heaviness in the atmosphere. It’s about isolation, but there’s also hope.
Chloe Sweeney and James Condron
The character clings on; he doesn’t give up hope,” says Eoghan.
Eoghan is talking about his new book from his office in Carlow College. He’s an English lecturer, having first come here in 2011. He teaches Gothic literature, literary criticism, creative writing and mainly modern Irish literature.
His room is suitably garret-like, complete with a dusty, half-moon-shaped window and shelves of books. Many Irish authors’ names are written on the spines, including James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and John Banville, the latter being the subject of his doctorate.
He chose Banville because of his ability to write literary fiction that is also a page-turner, like his Booker-nominated The book of evidence.
“I started reading him when I was a teenager; I loved his style. His books could be gripping and thrilling, but still literature. The book of evidence is a crime thriller that’s also interested in larger questions such as truth and authenticity,” continues Eoghan. “He can speak to the intelligentsia as well as tell a really good story. I owe my career to John Banville, because my PhD is based on him, and without that I couldn’t work as a lecturer. Having that spark as a teenager has led me to lecturing and even writing myself,” he smiles.
Eoghan grew up in Ballinteer, Dublin and attended school in St Benildus College for boys in Kilmacud.
Anne Marie Dunne and Sarah Benson
As a teenager, he developed a love of reading and devoured any book that fell into his path.
“I read everything from fantasy to science fiction to horror, to Jane Austen and Emily Brontë,” he recalls.
He attended Trinity for two years to read history, but dropped out and took time out before he went to UCD at the age of 22.
“By the time I went to UCD, I knew what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to make a mess of it, so I was very dedicated to my studies. I loved it all. I loved the lectures, the reading, the learning and being a student,” says Eoghan.
The crowd were rapt with attention!
Photo credit: Joanne O'Brien
He studied English and philosophy there and went on to do his masters in Maynooth. During his studies, he developed a love of philosophy that still informs his life and his work.
He would advise anyone harbouring ambitions to write a book to go for it, but to be as true to yourself and what you want to say as possible.
“Just do it! The great thing about writing a book is the stimulation that comes from doing something creative. It’s most important that you write the book that you want to write.”
A Provincial death is on sale at the Visual arts centre and all good book shops
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