One afternoon - in a certain European village, in the middle of a civil war- one man digs while another watches over him. Gradually, they begin to talk. As the snow falls and truck-loads of villagers are corralled in the next field, we discover why the two men are there - not just who they are and how specific, sinister events in their country have led them to be separated by a deepening grave, but why the history of civilization is inseparable from the history of mass violence. As the sky darkens and the temperature drops, the novel reaches its gripping, terrifying conclusion: that our most fixed certainties can disappear at the point of a gun.

Beautifully written, with a poet's eyes for detail, coupled to a chilling narrative drive, this novel is current in the best sense - grounded in recent European history and attempting to create art out of brutal life. This debut novel from the Ireland-born writer was Long-Listed for the Man Booker Prize 2003.