Playwright Frank McGuinness’ first novel is set in the Forties in Donegal, in the kind of Catholic community where it is a venial sin to do the washing on Sunday and a mortal sin to do the ironing. We are told this by Euni, a young girl and the first of the voices who carry forward the story. The other voices include her mother, Margaret, and her father, Malachy, who works in a forge; the priest, Simon O’Hagen; a Protestant young woman, Martha, and her Protestant uncle, the Reverend Columba Sewell. There is no abusing priest, no sexual or other depravity, but nor is there much joy. The picture would be grim indeed without the advent of the seventh voice, Gianni.Gianni, a young Italian painter, is the pivotal character in the novel, although, with a proper sense of drama, he te