John McGahern was born in Dublin in 1934 and brought up in the Republic of Ireland. He trained to be a primary-school teacher before becoming a full-time writer, and later taught and travelled extensively. He lived in County Leitrim. The author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories, he was the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including a Society of Authors Travelling Scholarship, the American-Irish Award, the Prix Etrangère Ecureuil and the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Amongst
Women
, which won both the GPA and the
Irish Times
Award, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and made into a four-part BBC television series. His work appeared in numerous anthologies and has been translated into many languages. In 2005, his autobiography,
Memoir
, won the South Bank Literature Award. John McGahern died in 2006.
THE BARRACKS
NIGHTLINES
THE LEAVETAKING
GETTING THROUGH
THE PORNOGRAPHER
HIGH GROUND
AMONGST WOMEN
THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN
MEMOIR
CREATURES OF THE EARTH: NEW AND SELECTED STORIES
play
THE POWER OF DARKNESS
First published in 1965
by Faber and Faber Limited
Bloomsbury House
74-77 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DA
New Faber paperback edition published in 2008
This ebook edition first published in 2009
All rights reserved
© John McGahern, 1965
The right of John McGahern to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
ISBN 978—0—571—25021—9 [epub edition]