During winter season in a secluded Alpine city, John Molloy, an Irish restorative sculptor, meets Bernadette, an enigmatic Italian sociologist. As John falls in love, a distressing moment from his youth rises into view, the disastrous fallout of which has reverberated unchecked through his life.

Years later, a letter from home arrives, asking him to pray for the speedy death of an ailing friend. Over a day-long odyssey through the ancient streets and churches of Bologna, John is forced to confront his present, his past and the bedrock of his psyche. A delicately crafted novel of two halves, a decade apart, The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth is a masterful excavation of human desires, inhibitions, and the patterns of habit to which we unwittingly fall prey.

Praise for The Gorgeous Inertia Of The Earth

“The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth is an important novel, one that will leave an important imprint, and one that, like great poetry, demands re-reading”

Cathy Sweeney

“The exact and the visionary ... an original voice”

Colm Tóibín

“Captivating”

The Irish Times

“The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth is not just a novel about a sculptor, it is also a novel which self-consciously attempts to reenact, or perform, the process of sculpting. To this end, the narrative voice constantly weighs the scene, checks it from various angles, considers where its boundaries should be, how it would look lit by sunlight or candlelight, and only then … chip … a declaration is made and the heart of things becomes almost imperceptibly clearer. It makes for a deliberative and delicate reading experience, revelatory in the truest sense of that word”

Keiran Goddard, The Guardian

“The Gorgeous inertia of the Earth is a moving tribute to making in all its forms – not least that of writing”

Michael Cronin, The Irish Times

“With admirable seriousness, Adrian Duncan explores themes of art, religion and decay”

Michael Alditti, The Financial Times

“The author's prose is outstanding ... In its originality and intensity it bears comparison with John Berger and WG Sebald, both of whom enriched and extended the novel form”

Alannah Hopkins, The Irish Examiner

“... beguiling ...”

–RTÉ Guide