The Star of the Sea

So, I found out earlier this year that Joseph O'Connor wrote a book related to one of the characters from his excellent novel Star of the Sea. I read Star of the Sea back in 2005 or 2006 and was blown away, so naturally I picked up Redemption Falls. I started it, but I couldn't remember the character who's spin-off this novel was. So last night, I picked up Star of the Sea to refresh my memory before re-tackling Redemption Falls, and this is what I found:

"The stare of the m[an] intimates many things, but one thing mainly, which he sometimes forgets. That every image committed to paper contains the ghost of the author who fashioned it. Outside the frame, beyond the border, is often the space where the subject is standing. A shifting, elusive presence, certainly, but a palpable one for its camouflages. He is there...in the pictures he paints. But they also contain the untold histories, as every man who ever hated contained the blood of his innumerable fathers. Every woman. Every man."

• Joseph O'Conner