Authors new book inspired by camino
A new novel called Chimes of Freedom Flashing by Seán de Brí will be launched in the County Library in Mullingar on Tuesday September 8 at 6.30pm.
The author, a retired science teacher, is a native of Dublin who spent his youth in Mullingar in the 1960s.
“Once I retired I needed a purpose and that I discovered was writing,” he said.
Chimes of Freedom Flashing tells the story of an ageing small town psychiatrist, Sean Delamere, who embarks on a quest to save his patients from madness and make himself famous.
The title is inspired Bob Dylan’s song, and the book is about “being truly free” says Seán. “It’s about having the freedom to be yourself.
“I grew up in the ’60s in Mullingar. We had no television like today. So I spent my youth at the lake swimming or in the tennis club. I played golf all my life too.
“The ’60s was a time of idealism and hope, it was carefree. It wasn’t a consumer society. I went to school in St Finian’s College and I enjoyed it because I was academically good. I liked Latin and Greek, and that was fantastic because everything comes from the Greeks. They sought truth and beauty and I am a bit of a romantic, so that’s what I’m seeking to achieve in this debut novel.”
Seán walked the Camino de Santiago, which inspired him to put pen to paper.
“It wasn’t difficult, it just flowed. Six hours would go like that,” he says with a click of his fingers.
“It was important for me to do, even to say that ‘I produced that book’.”
The story revolves around Sean Delamere, who ruminates on the absurd nature of life with its media bombardment and demands for consumption, instant gratification, high octane relationships, happiness and youth.
Many of his most disturbed patients can be found wandering around the wilderness of northern Spain on their way to Santiago de Compostela having been advised ‘there is no problem that cannot be solved while walking’.
• Chimes of Freedom Flashing is available on Kindle and will be launched in the County Library in Mullingar on Tuesday September 8 at 6.30pm.