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Book Review – A Thought Without Collision by Adrian Duncan

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About the Book

Summer, 1923. Six-year-old Catherine Carolan grows restless on her parents’ farm. It’s already clear that her intellect will soon outgrow the two-room schoolhouse across the fields. But in post-Civil War Ireland, an education is not an easy thing for a girl to access, and young Catherine is not the only one in her family who will come to tire of rural life.

Summer, 1951. To ease him through his final days, Dr. Josef Alois calls for someone from his past. Enter Catherine Carolan, now an Oxford professor. As Alois’s mind and body falter, Catherine must decide how far she will follow this man that she loves.

Format: Paperback (224 pages) Publisher: Tuskar Rock
Publication date: 13th August 2026 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

The book’s opening chapter positions this as a novel in two strands. The analogy used is that of a piano keyboard with the starting point as middle C and your right hand striking ascending notes and your left hand striking descending notes, alternately. (It probably helps if you’re familiar with a piano keyboard.)

The ‘ascending’ strand follows Catherine from the age of six growing up on her parents’ farm in rural Ireland. Her schoolteacher, Master Francis, quickly recognises she possesses extraordinary mathematical ability far beyond her years. Guiding her through increasingly complex concepts provides him with a sense of fulfilment, something lacking in his interactions with his other pupils many of whom struggle with simple tasks of reading and writing. As we discover, Catherine perceives numbers not just as things to be used to solve equations or calculations, but as objects that can possess different properties. Exploring such concepts will set the direction of her future academic career.

Catherine’s early years immerses the reader in the life of a rural Irish village, introducing some fascinating characters. As in the author’s previous book, The Geometer Lobachevsky, many of these possess obsessional traits. Austin, a local photographer, dreams of building a golf course (as it happens on the land currently owned by Catherine’s family) and has spent time drawing a design in meticulous detail, including calculations of degree of difficulty based on each hole’s topography, length and the effect of prevailing winds. It’s sight of this map that first prompts Catherine’s thoughts about the properties of numbers.

The descending strand takes place thirty years later and focuses on Catherine’s former university mentor, Dr. Josef Alois, as he lives out what we know to be the final weeks of his life in a house he built himself in a remote part of Scotland. ‘This man is more unwell than he believes and will perish in one month and eleven days.’ Alois’s story is one of mental and physical decline whereas Catherine’s story has been of intellectual progress and achievement.

Their relationship is based on shared intellectual curiosity about subjects such as mathematical probability, philosophy, logic and linguistics. Also by the nights they spent together in air raid shelters during the Blitz. Briefly perhaps there was the possibility their relationship may have moved beyond friendship, on Catherine’s part at least. For Alois, it’s more a case of admiration for Catherine’s exceptional intellect. Their bond remains strong enough that Catherine travels to Alois’s home to care for him through his illness. There are moving moments as Alois becomes frailer and less and less able to communicate his wishes clearly. The remote location of the house means there’s a claustrophobic feel to this strand of the story.

Catherine is a mathematical prodigy. I am not. This is where I struggled because many of the mathematical concepts went over my head and I found myself skipping sections that were just too abstruse. I think this prevented me forming a stronger connection with the story. Although I admired the wonderful writing, I was left with the feeling I was not quite clever enough to appreciate everything the author was trying to convey.

You can read an interview with Adrian about the book here which I found gave me a little more insight into its themes and inspiration.

In three words: Complex, intimate, elusive

About the Author

Adrian Duncan is an Irish artist and writer. His us the author of Love Notes from a German Building Site, which won the John McGahern Book Prize, A Sabbatical in Leipzig, The Geometer Lobachevsky, which was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, and The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth. (Photo: Publisher author page)

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Book Review – The Days Of Our Birth by Charlie Laidlaw @claidlawauthor

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About the Book

It was a perfect relationship until time pulled them apart.

The Days of Our Birth delves into the intricate bond between Peter and Sarah as they navigate their formative years. Spanning from their sixth birthday through two decades, the narrative unfolds against the backdrop of Sarah’s placement on the autism spectrum.

With a blend of humour and poignancy, the book intricately weaves together themes of love and friendship, unravelling the tale of two individuals who grapple with their emotions for each other, even though they remain unacknowledged.

Format: ebook (318 pages) Publisher: Rampart Books
Publication date: 27th June 2024 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

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My Review

The Days Of Our Birth charts the relationship between Sarah and Peter over the course of twenty years starting with their childhood friendship – a friendship formed partly because they are next door neighbours and partly because they were born on the same day – and ending in the present day. Along the way we drop in on them, so to speak, at various points in their lives, sometimes on birthdays but also at other significant moments as well. (The story does not unfold chronologically, sometimes looping back on itself, so keep an eye on the chapter headings.)

Peter’s story is a coming-of-age narrative charting life events such as his first sexual encounter, his travels around Europe and the emerging evidence of his literary talent. Although he experiences personal tragedy there are many light-hearted moments, such as his father’s culinary experiments. Peter is the one person who accepts Sarah just as she is, becoming her supporter, confidante and companion. He doesn’t care that other people, including his best friend Cal, think it strange he and Sarah walk hand in hand and yet, as Peter approaches adolescence, he does begin to wonder about the nature of their friendship.

Sarah’s story sensitively explores what it is like to be on the autistic spectrum, to be aware that you see the world slightly differently than other people and that they will make assumptions about you because of this. Sarah’s fierce intelligence sees her ostracised by her school classmates and nicknamed ‘Psycho Sarah’. At times she even makes deliberate mistakes to avoid standing out, a kind of ‘self-harm’ she re-enacts periodically over the years. Even when she has forged a successful career and knows she makes a valuable contribution, she still feels something of an outsider despite her attempts to modify her behaviour to match what she thinks others expect.

Sarah and Peter each have things they admire about the other. Peter appreciates Sarah’s ability to observe people, to piece things together and make sense of situations, to see things he misses. ‘She’s able to look under people’s skin and peel away at them, layer by layer, like an onion’. Sarah admires Peter’s willingness to improvise, to do random things without needing to plan every step of the way as she does.

Although the bond between Peter and Sarah persists over the years, it is periodically tested, in some cases almost to breaking point. There are mis-steps, misunderstandings and periods where they lose touch. But although their relationship changes over time it does so in a way they could not have imagined or hoped. I wasn’t the only one with tears running down my cheeks at the end.

The Days Of Our Birth is a thoughtful, beautifully written story about the bond between two people.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of the the author.

In three words: Tender, insightful, absorbing
Try something similar: This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech

About the Author

Charlie Laidlaw is a PR consultant, teaches creative writing, and lives in East Lothian. He is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh and was previously a national newspaper journalist and defence intelligence analyst. He has lived in London and Edinburgh, and has two children.

His other novels are Everyday Magic, The Things We Learn When We’re Dead, The Time Between Space, Being Alert! and Love Potions and Other Calamities.

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