Strange Flowers

 Donal Ryan is the author of Strange Flowers. The story is mostly set in a small town called Knockagowny in Ireland. The year is 1973. The author uses run on sentences that describe the landscape and the smells and the plants. Paddy and Kit Gladney are the parents of Moll. Paddy delivers mail and farms for the local land owner. Kit is an accountant for local businesses. At age 20 Moll leaves home without telling anyone. Paddy and Kit don't know what to do. They hear she took a bus to a larger town. So they travel, for the first time, to the big city to look for her. No one has seen her and after a day of searching they go back home. Moll is on their minds every day. One morning, five years later, Paddy is about to embark on his postal route and there stands Moll at the gate to the yard. Moll has changed and she has a few surprises for her family. Why Moll left doesn't become clear until the end of the book. I enjoyed reading this family drama in part because of the interesting characters but also because the author's descriptions of the hills and the bogs was so poetic.