The Herbalist

The Herbalist is the electrifying first novel from Niamh Boyce, winner of the 2012 Hennesssy XO Award for New Irish Writing. A devastating and emotional story of yearning and obsession in 1930s rural Ireland, in its freshness and immediacy, The Herbalist will appeal to fans of Edna O'Brien and Patrick McCabe. Out of nowhere the herbalist appears and sets out his stall in the market square. In this dull midlands town the exotic stranger brings glamour and excitement. The townspeople call him The Don and with his potions and lotions he seems to have a cure for all that ails them. Teenager Emily is enchanted. In the herbalist she sees a Clark Gable to her Jean Harlow, a Fred to her Ginger — a man to make her forget her lowly status in this place where respectability is everything. But Emily has competition for the herbalist's attentions. The women of the town — the women from the big houses and their maids, the shopkeepers and their serving girls, those of easy virtue and their pious sisters — all seem mesmerised by this visitor who, they say, can perform miracles. When Emily discovers the dark side of the man who has infatuated her all summer, once again her world turns upside down. She may be naive and full of foolish dreams, but she has a fierce sense of right and wrong. And with the herbalist's fate lying in her hands she must make the biggest decision of her young life. To make him pay for his sins against the women of the town? Or let him escape to cast his spell on another town? The Herbalist is a riveting story about the shadow side of Irish life — the snobbery, the fear of sex, the tragedy of women destroyed by social convention and the bravery of those who defied it. It is an unforgettable story from a rare new talent. In addition to winning the 2012 Hennessy New Writing Award, Niamh Boyce has been shortlisted for the 2011 Francis McManus Short Story competition, the 2010 Hennessy Literary Awards, the 2010 Molly Keane Award and the 2010 WOW Award.