Fred Scully is in another country, a 'desert Irishman' far from
home. After two long years of travelling through Europe, he decided to
move his family from Australia to western Ireland. Scully arrived weeks
ahead of his family to renovate the old farmhouse they'd bought in the
shadow of a castle in County Offally, and which he's renavated by hand. Now, at the gate of Shannon's
international airport, he anxiously awaits the arrival of his pregnant
wife and seven-year-old daughter, envisioning a new life ahead, a fresh
start. He has waited for and worried about this for months. He is a man
who does not like being alone. The plane lands, the glass doors to the
terminal slide open and his daughter emerges. Alone. There is no note,
no word of explanation from his wife, only the mute silence of his
stunned child. In an instant, Scully's life goes down in flames. This is a story of a marriage in our
time. So begins a love-crazed odyssey across Europe, to the underside of the male psyche, in search of a woman vanished.
(Adapted from Trove)
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