When JG Farrell drowned in the sea near his home in west Cork in 1979 he was 44 years old and at the peak of a stellar writing career. His “Empire trilogy” — Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip — was much praised in his lifetime, and Krishnapur won the 1973 Booker prize. Of the three novels in the trilogy, Farrell apparently thought Troubles his best. I’ve just been rereading it for the third time, and it never palls. Farrell’s home in Kilcrohane, west Cork, was ten miles as the crow flies from

Source: The Times August 21, 2020 15:00 UTC