Description

This Plague of Souls is a 2023 novel by Irish writer Mike McCormack, best known for Solar Bones. The book marks a stylistic shift from McCormack’s earlier experimental prose into a more tightly structured, noir-influenced narrative while retaining his signature philosophical depth and focus on rural Irish life.

The story centres on Nealon, a man who returns to his family home in County Mayo after a period of imprisonment. He finds the house completely empty—no sign of his wife or child, and an unsettling sense that his life has been quietly erased.

Shortly after his return, Nealon receives a phone call from a stranger who claims to know what has happened to his family. The caller offers information, but only in exchange for a face-to-face conversation. This sets up a tense psychological exchange that gradually draws Nealon deeper into a web of uncertainty, manipulation, and political undertones.

As the narrative unfolds, the story shifts between rural isolation and broader contemporary anxieties, including surveillance, global instability, and the fragility of identity. The novel is structured as a metaphysical thriller, blending elements of crime fiction with philosophical reflection on truth, guilt, and responsibility.

McCormack uses spare, controlled prose to create an atmosphere of dislocation and tension, contrasting sharply with the lyrical style of Solar Bones. The result is a compact but layered novel that explores how personal crisis intersects with wider social and political forces.