All Down Darkness Wide by Seán Hewitt

WINNER OF THE ROONEY PRIZE FOR IRISH LITERATURE 2022
 
A luminous and haunting memoir from the prize-winning poet - a story of love, heartbreak and coming of age, and a fearless exploration of queer identity and trauma.
 
When Seán meets Elias, the two fall headlong into a love story, but they soon come face-to-face with crisis, after Elias sets out on the path to suicide, then turns back.
 
Wrestling with this, Sean Hewitt delves deep into his own history, enlisting the ghosts of queer figures and poets before him. From a nineteenth-century cemetery in Liverpool to the pine forests of Gothenburg, Hewitt plumbs the darkness in search of solace and hope. All Down Darkness Wide is a mesmerising story of heartache and renewal, and a fearless exploration of a world that too often sets happiness and queer life at odds.
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'Extraordinarily beautiful... the best new work of non-fiction I've read in years' Sarah Perry'
Rigorous and sensual... Hewitt has forged a life-enhancing memoir' Spectato
r'Beautiful' Colm Toibin
'Rapturous' New York Times
'Extraordinary' Observer
'Stunning' Sunday Times
 
Seán Hewitt is the author of the amazing poetry collection Tongues of Fire