The Gathering by Anne Enright.

It’s the rare book that captures not only my attention, but my husband’s as well. He’s of the Ed Abbey/Cormac McCarthy, rough-and-tumble, action-adventure mindset, while I’m lately inclined toward short, contemporary fiction (Mary Gaitskill, Alice Munro), though still a sucker for literary greats like Kafka, Checkov and Poe.

But a recent read managed to hold us both spellbound. “The Gathering,” written by Irish author Anne Enright, weaves deft storytelling with a precise, oh-my-God-I-wish-I-could-write-like-that command of the English language. Enright’s way with words is so remarkable, so utterly refreshing, it’s surprising her story doesn’t take a backseat to the words.

But the tale of the Hegarty clan is always front and center in this book, through three generations of hardship, loss and love. It is the suicide of brother Liam that sets the tale in motion. There is no better magnifier for uncovering a family’s flaws then the unrelenting waves of grief that arrive as though on cue immediately following a death. Veronica sets out to claim her brother’s body, and in the process, uncovers the figurative ghosts that haunt her and her family, both past and present. Enright, with her sometimes-prickly words and oddly cadenced sentences, mines this storyline for every drop of literary oil. Moving seamlessly between present and past, she unearths the story of this Irish clan and the fractured relationships that define it.

Let me be frank, this isn’t a soft and easy read. It is a powerfully honest examination of the inherent disappointments, secrets and joys that bind families together. Grief and loss are in no short supply here, yet there were times when I laughed out loud. After reading some passages, I had to set the book down to contemplate my own family’s strangely familiar dance with death. Yes, these are flawed characters, which is precisely why the tale is so rich.

“The Gathering” was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction in October and comes highly recommended by Six Minute Style.