The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth

By Adrian Duncan

AN IRISH INDEPENDENT AND IRISH TIMES BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2025

In this moving new novel, award-winning Irish writer Adrian Duncan explores love and grief while finding their resonance in works of art

During winter season in a secluded Alpine city, John Molloy, an Irish restorative sculptor, meets Bernadette, an enigmatic Italian sociologist. As John falls in love, a distressing moment from his youth rises into view, the disastrous fallout of which has reverberated unchecked through his life.

Years later, a letter from home arrives, asking him to pray for the speedy death of an ailing friend. Over a day-long odyssey through the ancient streets and churches of Bologna, John is forced to confront his present, his past and the bedrock of his psyche. A delicately crafted novel of two halves, a decade apart, The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth is a masterful excavation of human desires, inhibitions, and the patterns of habit to which we unwittingly fall prey.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1805221949
• ISBN13: 9781805221944
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Serpent's Tail
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.7"