Ciarán Collins

"Meet Charlie. People think he's crazy. But he's not. People think he's stupid. But he's not. People think he's innocent-- He's the Gamal. This is the story of the dark heart of an Irish village, of how daring to be different can be dangerous and how there is nothing a person will not do for love"

p.163 in Spring 2016

I agree with duende. It did not catch my fancy either. A bit too similar to The Thing about December, but December had better pace. I found this book a bit laborious. I didn't finish it, dropped it back to the library when due.

I just couldn't get into this one. I felt like I was reading in circles, which seemed to be the author's intention. Presumably, the narrator had some sort of mental health issue, or was somewhere on the autistic spectrum, or both, but nothing hooked me into the story so the book came due at the library before I finished, and I wasn't interested enough to renew.