Beyond the Horizon

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What to expect

She points the lens of the camera. The artist turns his head slightly. The light catches his brow and his silver-white hair. She snaps. He is lit like a Vermeer.

Ireland. County Wexford, 1951. A father and son go swimming in the sea. The waves crash. The wind rises. Only one comes back—Colin, aged six. His mother, Eileen, runs to seek help, but this is a tragedy that will haunt them forever. Colin won’t speak a word. He is mute and struggling to cope. But Eileen can see he has a talent for painting. She shows him his father’s artwork and gives him a print of a Paul Henry landscape, and slowly, with her encouragement, he begins to follow his dream.

Years later on Inishbofin island off the west coast of Ireland, out walking with his dog on the sand, Colin meets Laura, a young woman on holiday, and a tentative friendship starts to develop. Gradually his past comes to life in a story filled with love and frustration, loss and betrayal, but above all with the passion he has held through his life for the light in the sea and the sky and his search for that distant shore where the sky sweeps down to the water.

One man. The sea. One painting.

Critics Review

  • “Trials and tragedies can spur artists to great heights, but they can also undermine everything they’ve worked for. Such is the weighty conundrum behind Eoin Lane’s Beyond the Horizon, about six decades of an artist’s life on the breathtakingly beautiful shores of Ireland…Lane’s spare but precise prose sings…As Colin’s quest leads him from Ireland to the United States, Italy, and back again to Ireland for a poignant conclusion, Lane spins a thoughtful tale of artistic integrity and redemption.”

    Foreword Reviews
  • “A haunting and heartfelt novel, Beyond the Horizon is an utterly transporting tale of love, loss, and artistic passion. Eoin Lane’s debut heralds the arrival of a striking new talent.”

    Dan Sheehan, author of Restless Souls
  • “A stunning read! Moving. Couldn’t put it down. The author being a painter as well as a writer makes for a real tour de force.”

    Dr. Noelle Campbell-Sharp, founder of Cill Rialaig, artist and writers retreat
  • “I was transported rapidly into the world of Colin Larkin to embark on a journey of tragedy, creativity, love, and loss in an emotion-filled story. Lane has a gift for poetic visual storytelling that reels you in and helps you combine images with text to heighten the experience and ultimately connect the reader to all the themes and threads throughout.”

    Elsie Nolan, artist
  • “Eoin Lane’s Beyond the Horizon is a book for anyone who loves Ireland, loves the sea, and loves art—particularly, the painter’s dangerous romance, or passionate duel, with canvas and paint. Lane’s deep understanding of this process, both its tragedies and its triumphs, animates every page, every word.”

    Daniel Hecht, bestselling author of On Brassard's Farm
  • “Eoin Lane has crafted an intensely visual novel, capturing a play of light and shadow, and the substance of a life lived on the seam between brightness and grief.”

    Neil Hegarty, author of The Jewel

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