Short Synopsis
In The Night Stages, Jan Urguhart has written a magnificent novel of intersecting memories that explores the meaning of separation and reunion, the sorrows of fractured families, and the profound effect of Ireland's harshly beautiful landscape on lives lived in solitude.

Full Synopsis
After a tragic accident leaves Tamara alone on the most westerly tip of Ireland, she begins an affair with a charismatic meteorologist named Niall. At first her romance is filled with passionate secrecy, but when Niall's younger brother, Kieran, disappears after a bicycle race, Niall, unable to shake the idea that he may be to blame, slowly falls into despondency. Distraught and abandoned after their decade-long relationship, Tamara decides she has no option but to leave.

Tamara makes her way from Ireland to New York. During a layover in Gander, Newfoundland, a fog moves in, grounding her plane and stranding her in front of the airport's mural. As she gazes at the nutcracker-like children, missile-shaped birds, and fruit blossoms, she revisits the circumstances that brought her to Ireland and the family entanglement that has forced her into exile.

"Highly satisfying on many levels, this novel will have book clubs basking in its big symbols and abuzz over Tamara's final decision." ---Kirkus Starred Review

"Urquhart's poetic, almost ethereal writing invites readers to revisit certain passages and marvel." ---Library Journal Starred Review

"Canadian author Urquhart's elegiac prose evokes metaphors of arrivals and departures…" ---Booklist

Kirkus Review

Library Journal Review