Emotionally direct, with ‘the ordinariness/all hearts/demand’, these poems are fascinating documents in a remarkable journey of survival, testaments in every line to a brave, unbowed, enduring heart—anchored in the ordinary world, yet not afraid to dream.
– Eamon Grennan
Feather Silence is a deeply personal collection that charts the years after Ben Murnane was diagnosed with one of the rarest genetic diseases in the world, Fanconi anaemia: his many agonising days in hospital; those first nervous steps into the world of love; the joy and the pain of memories and the little details of life.
Written alongside Ben’s memoir Two in a Million, these poems shed new light on the remarkable story of illness, friendship and love told there. These are the thoughts that occupied a young man whose life was on the brink, and they read with insight and beauty.
Praise for Two in a Million:
‘riveting and beautifully written’ – Sunday Independent
‘fascinating and emotionally charged… peppered with humour and an almost unsettling level of honesty… This is a remarkable story of an erudite young man’s fight for life’ – Evening Echo, ****
‘inspiring… exceptionally moving’ – Ireland’s Own
