A Border Station

First published in Ireland, where it was a bestseller, this adroitly crafted, intensely dramatic first novel is composed of seven interlocking stories. In an intimate, autobiographical tone, the author recreates the stages of his young hero's discovery of the intricacies of relationships--with his parents, his religion, his peers. The son of a burly police sergeant whose beat is the border of Northern Ireland, the young boy is not entirely separated from the sensitive mother he adores. This makes for a troubling relationship with his often coarse, larger-than-life father; yet it is this parent's approval he craves. Written in spare yet lyrical prose, these sometimes poignant, often hilarious stories capture the mosaic of contemporary Irish life, while following the boy's awakening to sexuality and the power of Catholicism, and his eventual break with childhood. Connaughton wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed Irish film My Left Foot. (Mar.)