A mysterious mountain scales new heights for breakout Irish author
Rónán Hession wasn’t expecting his first book, Leonard and Hungry Paul, to sell over 200k copies with publisher Bluemoose Books. Picture: Ger Holland
- Ghost Mountain
- Rónán Hession
- Bluemoose Books, £18.00
“A couple of years ago, I ruptured my Achilles and every time I come down to Cork, I am reminded of it because I keep on forgetting how hilly it is,” says Rónán Hession when we meet in a hotel lobby in Rebel territory.
The Dublin author is in the city for a reading at the Cork World Book Fest and the subject of hilly terrain is fitting considering the title of his third book, .
When we speak it is on the cusp of release but is already receiving rave reviews in the online sphere, a somewhat different scenario from the publication of his first book, .
Hession’s debut novel has been an increasing rarity in the world of publishing, a book that built gradually from virtually zero hype to become a huge word-of-mouth hit, with a growing band of readers drawn into the everyday world of the remarkably unremarkable title characters.
Published in 2019 by Bluemoose Books, has sold almost 200,000 copies worldwide, a truly noteworthy achievement for a debut Irish author and a small independent press.
Hession says he was completely taken aback by its success.
“I remember at the time, saying to people, ‘I have a book coming out but it’s with a really small UK publisher and you probably won't hear about it’.
“I thought it would be weird not to say it to people but I really thought it would be the kind of thing where I would say ‘I once had a book published’.”
“That kind of fits the book as well. One by one, people are just hearing about it.”
Bluemoose Books, which is based in the English town of Hebden Bridge, went on to publish Hession’s second book , and now, .
It is a family affair, run by Kevin Duffy and his wife Hetha, while her mother Lin Webb is Hession’s editor. The publisher’s ethos appealed to Hession immediately.
“Kevin is brilliant to work with — we talk almost every day, and we’re very much a team. They have always just said, ‘we back the writer rather than the book — and we let that writer grow’.”
In Hession’s latest book, the titular mountain appears from nowhere, as short, rhythmic chapters explore its effects on the book’s quirky cast of characters, including Ocho, whose wife Ruth is inexplicably drawn toward the mysterious elevation.
has a more surreal tone than Hession’s previous books, some of which is explained by its beguiling origins, including some inspiration sourced from his day job as a senior civil servant in the Department of Social Protection.
“And then during the pandemic, I was asked to write a short story … I thought I would try and write a 2,000 word novel, that was like 15-20 chapters and by compressing the story that way, I came across a style I really liked.
“So I had that image of the mountain and then I had this character Ocho, who just seemed to come out of nowhere, in that space.”
The final piece of the puzzle came during the pandemic, when Hession was working from home.
“I couldn't print anything, and my eyes would get tired looking at the screen. So I used the ‘read aloud’ function on Microsoft Word which is kind of like karaoke, it bounces from word to word, and it reads out the text.
“Then I started using it in my creative writing, for editing and then for writing. My computer used an American voice called Junior, which had this kind of slight nasal vulnerability to it.
“So I wrote the whole book with his voice, the whole rhythm, the reiteration, the strangeness of it all.”
The process of writing was also somewhat different for Hession.
“The previous books I wrote in blitzes of like three or four months. This one, I only let myself write twice a week over about 15 months.
“I call it heron writing — there’s an estuary near us where we get a lot of herons, and they just wait and wait, and wait and wait, and then dip with real accuracy.
“They actually do two movements because they correct for the refraction of the light and the water. So that kind of writing is sitting down and not just bashing it out straightaway.
“It's waiting until almost everything subsides. And before you try and writerfy it, before your fanciness kicks in, you get in and you get it down and you stop writing.”
Hession has been working in the civil service for almost 27 years, and it’s a job, which contrary to some assumptions, he finds is the perfect complement to his creative pursuits, which has also included music — he has recorded several albums under the performing name Mumblin’ Deaf Ro.
“I suppose people have this image of you sitting in a big quiet office and you're just stamping things and it's a pointless sort of bureaucracy. That's never been my experience.
“A lot of the problems you’re dealing with in government departments are intractable and complex. I‘ve done a lot of different things. I’ve worked in local government, national parks, with the Troika, and now with marginalised groups in social protection.
“I’ve always loved it and also, it's one of the few jobs where the written word is still really important. A lot of my day is spent writing or editing.”
Hession’s creative impulse also extends to the exterior of his books, and in the case of , there is no doubt that the cover image, a vibrant and stunning abstract painting by Cork artist Tom Climent, makes for a great aesthetic choice.
“I’m always very involved in the covers; and I had been looking at mountain images for about a year. It’s very hard to find a good image because mountains are so symbolic.
“Then I read Cristín Leach’s book, 'Negative Space', and she writes very well about Tom's paintings there. So I looked up his paintings and I just started seeing a few that I thought, yeah, this is it.
“I contacted Tom, who sent me a very nice email back, saying he was very interested in the idea of different art forms collaborating. And then when we got it, I wanted to make sure it didn't have text all over it.”
“So we tried to be as sensitive as possible to his painting and the reaction has just been sensational.
“I love that the painting is such a big part of the story of the book and hopefully the reaction to it or whatever way it finds its way in the world will do justice to Tom’s painting.”
And with that, it’s time to stroll off towards Cork City Library, thankfully a flat and even route for this unassuming author who continues to scale new heights, on the page at least.
