Ghost Mountain by Rónán Hession review – a delightful fable

The mysteries of everyday existence are thrown into sharp relief by the sudden appearance of a magical mountain

This is an extraordinary time for Irish fiction. I know, it’s nearly always an extraordinary time for Irish fiction. But one of the things that’s striking about this particular extraordinary time for Irish fiction is how many of its leading figures – Anne Enright, Kevin Barry, Claire Keegan, Colin Barrett – keep getting better and& bolder.

Rónán Hession is probably best known for his 2019 debut Leonard and& Hungry Paul, the charming, compassionate tale of two men in their 30s who are yet to throw a starting six in the Snakes and Ladders game of life. There are characters like Leonard and Hungry Paul in his third novel, Ghost Mountain, and plenty of the same deadpan wit. But it’s a much more ambitious book – ambitious to an almost comical degree. The whole thing could be read as one brilliant riff on Sam Goldwyn’s famous request that a story start with an earthquake and then build.