[1][2][3][4] Although it received mostly favourable reviews on its first publication, sales of The Gathering had been modest before it was named as one of the six books on the Booker Prize shortlist in September 2007.

"[8] The novel traces the narrator's inner journey, setting out to derive meaning from past and present events, and takes place in Ireland and England.

Its title refers to the funeral of Liam Hegarty, an alcoholic who killed himself in the sea at Brighton.

His mother and eight of the nine surviving Hegarty children gather in Dublin for his wake.

She thinks that the reason for his alcoholism lies in something that happened to him in his childhood when he stayed in his grandmother's house, and uncovers uncomfortable truths about her family.