Today is the birthday of Irish novelist and short story author Bernard MacLaverty (b. 1942), whose novels have been called quietly brilliant and whose first novel in 16 years, Midwinter Break, just came out in 2017. MacLaverty’s novels have been shortlisted for many major awards, including the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Novel Award.

MacLaverty was born in Belfast and attended Queen’s University there to become an English teacher (after a stint as a medical lab technician). MacLaverty left his home country during the Troubles of Northern Ireland and moved to Scotland, where he’s lived ever since, first in Edinburgh, then the Isle of Islay where he headed up the English department of a high school, and finally Glasgow. His first collection of short stories, Secrets and Other Stories, came out in 1977 and his first novel, Lamb, in 1980. Lamb tells the tragic story of a surrogate father-son relationship between a priest and the student he’s supposedly trying to save; it was made into a award-winning film starring Liam Neeson (1985). Cal, MacLaverty’s 1983 novel about the Troubles, was made into an award-winning film starring Helen Mirren (1984). So there’s that. MacLaverty has also directed a short film himself, Bye-Child (2003), based on the Seamus Heaney poem, and ended up winning a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best First Time Director.

Midwinter Break, MacLaverty’s fifth novel, is about an elderly Irish couple who have long lived in Scotland but take a trip to Amsterdam for the weekend. The nature of the couple’s relationship is revealed through MacLaverty’s incredible handling of details: the husband is more and more possessed by an alcohol problem, while the wife wonders what more there is to life, saying, “The family is raised – the work’s done. That can’t be it, can it? There’s 10 or 20 years left over, as it were.” (This novel is definitely going on my list. It sounds funny and moving and eye-opening.)

MacLaverty himself appears to be enjoying his later years immensely. He and his wife have eight grandchildren who all live nearby, and he reports in one article a game he and his toddler grandson have come up with in which they toss miniature magnetized finger dolls of James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and Ernest Hemingway at a radiator in his home office. (Read this and more here.)

Thought for the day: if you could throw magnetized dolls of famous authors at a radiator, which authors would you toss?

Have a beautiful Friday, enjoy your loved ones, and stay scrupulously honest to the data.