In December 1989, Tess and Mungo spot each other while supporting The Parade of Innocence in Dublin. Their paths continue to cross, and eventually they meet in The Winding Stair Bookshop & Cafe overlooking the Liffey at the Ha'Penny Bridge, both of them wary of the other and troubled by guilt. Tess has separated from her husband and left her son behind, Mungo almost killed his son in a fire by dropping a cigarette while drunk. Reluctant to reveal their true selves and circumstances, Tess concocts a life in Berlin, and Mungo picks up on her stratagem, inventing a life in Barcelona. Their personae fuel a torrid love affair, helping them, as their stories become more fantastic, to work through their guilt and to take responsibility for their happiness. Eamonn Wall in The Review of Contemporary Fiction noted that ‘the stories they tell of adventures in places they haven’t visited … form a fascinating double narrative, one which allows for deep insights into both of their lives…’ Review Thank you for sending me The Fabulists. It’s a very strange and impressive book. Mr Casey has managed to make two lost and empty lives obsessively interesting. I wish you would pass on my admiration. -Martha Gellhorn to Stephen Hayward, Serif Books An impressively mature and honest tale of extra-marital love and family obligation on the dole in contemporary Dublin, The Fabulists presents two of the most convincingly flesh-and-blood characters to turn up in an Irish novel for ages … an enormously compelling romance with two characters who’ll still be in your head weeks after the plot details have disappeared. -Colin Lacey, The Irish Voice, New York Fabulous, which comes from the word fable, suggests vast, amazing or excellent - all of which apply to this first novel by poet Philip Casey. An Irish love story for the 1990s. -Anthony Glavin, The Sunday Tribune
