The Ninth Hour - ReadMatter body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.6; background-color: #f4f4f9; color: #333; margin: 20px; } h1 { color: #2c3e50; font-size: 2.5em; text-align: center; margin-bottom: 20px; } h2, h3, h4, h5 { color: #16a085; margin-top: 20px; } h2::before, h3::before, h4::before, h5::before { content: "📘 "; } p { margin-bottom: 15px; } strong { color: #e67e22; } .condition { background-color: #eafaf1; border-left: 5px solid #16a085; padding: 10px; margin: 15px 0; } .summary { background-color: #fdf2f0; border-left: 5px solid #e74c3c; padding: 10px; margin: 15px 0; } .about-readmatter { background-color: #eaf1fc; border-left: 5px solid #2980b9; padding: 10px; margin: 15px 0; } .icon { color: #3498db; margin-right: 5px; } footer { margin-top: 30px; text-align: center; color: #7f8c8d; font-size: 0.9em; }
The Ninth Hour
About This Book
Condition & Size
📖 Condition: Score 6.5/10 Good-Very Good
Observations: None
📏 Size: Format B (Medium Format 129x178mm/135x216mm) Paperback
Summary
A magnificent new novel from one of America's finest writersa powerfully affecting story spanning the twentieth century of a widow and her daughter and the nuns who serve their Irish-American community in Brooklyn.On a dim winter afternoon, a young Irish immigrant opens the gas taps in his Brooklyn tenement. He is determined to proveto the subway bosses who have recently fired him, to his badgering, pregnant wife"that the hours of his life belong to himself alone." In the aftermath of the fire that follows, Sister St. Savior, an aging nun, appears, unbidden, to direct the way forward for his widow and his unborn child.We begin deep inside Catholic Brooklyn, in the early part of the twentieth century. Decorum, superstition, and shame collude to erase the man's brief existence. Yet his suicide, although never spoken of, reverberates through many lives and over the decadestesting the limits and the demands of love and sacrifice, of forgiveness and forgetfulness, even through multiple generations.The characters we meet, from Sally, the unborn baby at the beginning of the novel, who becomes the center of the story, to the nuns whose personalities we come to know and love, to the neighborhood families with whose lives they are entwined, are all rendered with extraordinary sympathy and McDermott's trademark lucidity and intelligence.Alice McDermott's The Ninth Hour is a crowning achievement by one of the premiere writers at work in America today.
About ReadMatter: Your Online Bookshop for Secondhand Books
At ReadMatter, we're all about bringing books to life and connecting stories with readers across South Africa. We stock over 10,000 books and 4,000 authors at any time, with a massive reservoir of 100,000 additional titles available on request. Whether you're searching for a beloved classic or a hidden gem, we're here to help you find your next great read.
Since we started in 2019, we've delivered over 15,000 books to readers all across the country. Every week, we add more than 250 new books to our website, ensuring there's always something new to discover. With a monthly sell-through rate of 30%, 1 in 3 books you see today will find a new home within a monthso don't wait too long to grab your favourites!
The stat we're most proud of? Our perfect 5-star Google rating and 100% positive customer satisfaction on Bobshop. These reflect our commitment to delivering not just books, but also happiness and joy to every reader.
We're big enough to deliver anywhere in South Africa with a street address but small enough to care deeply about every book we send out. At ReadMatter, every order makes a difference. Join us in celebrating the magic of stories and the joy of reading.
© 2025 ReadMatter | Bringing Stories to Life
