BEGINNER’S PLUCK: Paul Soye

FIRST-TIME novelist Paul Soye started out in social work. First he was a volunteer, then he had paid jobs, and, after a stint in France, he got a qualification. But he’s no stranger to writing. The 59-year-old is the prize-winning playwright of Cherished, and The Birdcage. But a novel seemed a step too far.

“Then I saw a photo in a Sunday paper,” says Soye. “It showed a bride and groom embarking on a shared life, but the accompanying story was about a gruesome murder. I realised this would not fit into a play or short story and that scared me. So I began by developing the main character, and wrote the novel in the first person.

“I wrote the first three chapters at NUI Galway, and at the end of the course, I was recommended to agent Jonathan Williams.”

WHO IS paul soye?

Date/Place of Birth: December 12, 1951, Dublin.

Education: Synge Street. UCC, (Social Work,) and NUIG, (MA in writing.)

Home: Westport, Co Mayo.

Family: Wife Finn McCarthy and two daughters.

Day Job: Job share, 2½ days as a social worker for the HSE.

Hobbies: Cycling, reading, gardening.

Favourite Writers: Joyce, McGahern, Pat McCabe and Clare Keegan. (He reads an appropriate passage from one of these authors to get into the mood for writing.)

Second novel: “It’s early yet but I’m reasonably happy with it. There’s a rural setting, and the voice is there.”

THE DEBUT

The Boy in the Gap. Liberties Press. €12.99. (Not available as e-book.)

Jack Salmon is on remand for a horrific crime. As he waits, in jail, he writes down his memories of a rural life. After his father’s suicide, his life begins to unravel. He’s the victim of his mother’s new partner, of his teacher, and of the school bully. The whole community is cruel in its indifference. This literary novel has echoes of Soye’s heroes; of McGahern and McCabe. It shows the cruelty of people who are, apparently, unaware of the consequences they can cause.