Fool's Sanctuary

Termon by the Irish sea is the great house in which Miranda and her detached father believe they and those they love will always be sheltered. The time is post-World War I, and for 18-year-old Miranda the idyll is shattered irreparably when her lover, Cathal, a working-class university student who is a member of the IRA, and her brother, Andrew, a cynical British Army officer, meet at Termon. The inevitable sacrifice of Cathal to save Andrew from an IRA set-up is foreshadowed in achingly terse dialogue. The violent act that leaves Miranda forever bereft is recalled in the opening scenes, when, on her deathbed, she remembers herself as a woman who has ""known the embraces of no man.'' In elegant, evanescent prose Johnston (How Many Miles to Babylon and Shadows on Our Skin) enters the private agony of those destined to experience the stark romanticism and tragedy of the Irish. (January 20)