Edna O'Brien--"The Little Red Chairs"

    Anything by Edna O'Brien (now 85) has to be read. She is an absolute wizard--or witch, I suppose--with words.

    In Cloonoila, a western Irish village by the sea, a 'healer and sex therapist' arrives--a Dr. Vladimir Dragan of Montenegro, who turns out to be a fugitive war criminal from the Balkans conflict. The women of the village are fascinated by him, and a childless married woman--Fidelma--becomes pregnant by him. After his exposure as a war criminal, Fidelma is viciously punished,  and she goes into exile in London, where she lives a form of penance, working at odd jobs and spending time assisting refugees. The first half of the book gripped me much more tightly than the second half--the London penance--and I lost a little interest in the detail of Fidelma's slow progress back to Ireland via the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague where "Dr. Dragan" is on trial.

    But, (a big 'but') if you have not read it--read it. It is an amazing piece of writing, especially in its examination of the inner life of both Fidelma and Dr. Dragan and of the questions of guilt and innocence that are explored.