Indeed, Bolger’s novel provides the most vivid of social and cultural contexts. The world around Eva changes and grows, as feminism achieves hard-fought victories, as colonialism gasps and retreats, as Aids runs a scythe through a generation. Ireland and Dublin morph and stretch too: some of this book’s most evocative scenes are set in 1951, as Maura Laverty bellows The Red Flag from the upstairs windows of the Gate Theatre, and Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir parade their (in this case, perfectly acceptable) homosexuality downstairs in the lobby, where a production of Tolka Row has just finished.
‘This novel is a continuation of another story: The Family on Paradise Pier (2005) chronicled the earlier lives of Eva’s family; and in a postscript, Bolger details the friendship he sustained over many years with Sheila Fitzgerald, who forms the model of Eva herself. Clearly, this personal dimension is of profound importance to Bolger, and this meshing of fiction and biography adds a new and distinctive layer to what is, in essence, a homage to a life lived fully. An Ark of Light is an act of appropriation – of a female voice, experience, and sensibility – offered to the reader in a form that is as moving as it is distinctive and respectful.