UNRAVELING OLIVER was published in 2014 in debut author Liz Nugent’s native Ireland, but is only now appearing in the United States. The reputation of both Nugent and the book precede them, given that her work was named “Crime Novel of the Year” by the Irish Book Awards. This is understandable, and the level of those accolades should almost certainly be attained here as well. One senses from the first words that the book is a winner, and it gradually becomes clear just how striking it is. It puts a new spin on the concept of the unreliable narrator while tinkering with the basic foundation of the contemporary novel, all with grand purpose and even greater results.

It is understandable if, from the first page, Oliver Ryan puts the reader in the mind of Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley. Indeed, Oliver gets the chance to make a first impression before anyone else, and doesn’t make the most of that or subsequent opportunities. While other characters are given their own chapters to narrate their versions of encounters and histories with Oliver, it is Oliver who does himself the most damage. One would reflexively reach for the term “clueless” in describing him, but it goes much deeper than that. He has no insight at all, a personality factor that in Nugent’s extremely talented hands implicitly yields even more information.

"One senses from the first words that the book is a winner, and it gradually becomes clear just how striking it is. It puts a new spin on the concept of the unreliable narrator while tinkering with the basic foundation of the contemporary novel, all with grand purpose and even greater results."

Each chapter is narrated in the first person but by a different character. Some are told by Oliver himself. He begins by describing a brutal attack upon his wife, Alice. We don’t learn what precipitated this --- at least not immediately --- but what is revealed is that Oliver is a very successful author of children’s books under the name “Vincent Dax” and Alice illustrates his work. We also are told that there is a wooden box in Oliver’s possession that is quite important to him. Ultimately we learn its contents, though that knowledge is parceled out in exquisitely parsimonious fashion.

Other chapters are narrated by Oliver’s acquaintances, past and present. They include (but are not limited to) Barney, who was dating Alice until Oliver swept her off her feet and carried her off; Michael, Oliver’s friend from school who managed to escape his orbit, all for the better; and Veronique, a French vineyard owner who employed Oliver for a summer during his college years, the summer when their lives were changed irrevocably.

Nugent demonstrates that she is a master of quietly ratcheting up the suspense quotient as she slowly but carefully reveals all of Oliver’s secrets --- including a couple he doesn’t know, at least at first --- leading up to the mystery that lies at the heart of the novel: the reason Oliver so brutally attacked his wife. It is a wild ride from first page to last, demonstrating how the sins of one generation can result in the far-reaching destruction of the next. Even more remarkably, Nugent, without apparent strain, manages to conclude the book with a happy ending, if bittersweetly so. At least two characters, the most innocent of the lot, get what they want, and it’s indirectly because of Oliver.

UNRAVELING OLIVER is a riveting work that reads as if it was written by an author who has several books under his or her belt, which is a shame, because I happily would have hunted down everything on Nugent’s backlist and read it. She has published shorter fiction, which I eagerly will seek out and read while awaiting her next book. You should as well.