Phone the cops or phone Alice. But just don't expect life to ever be the same after you make that call...' When two neighbouring Dublin couples decide to cooperate in building a townhouse that straddles both of their gardens, they have no idea that the journey they embark on will expose the faultlines within their relationships and result in a panicked decision one night when the two husbands, Chris and Ronan, are confronted by a moral dilemma. The consequences of their actions cast these law-abiding men adrift into unknown territory, propelled into a new moral landscape where it seems impossible to turn back. Written by a master story-teller, Tanglewood grows into an incisive dissection of Ireland in 2007, when although these characters are unaware of it the Celtic Tiger edifice is quietly imploding. It is bitter-sweet examination of the simmering tensions, intolerable strains and unbreakable bonds of memory and love that can simultaneously exist within marriage.

Born in Dublin in 1959, the poet, playwright and novelist Dermot Bolger worked as a factory hand, library assistant and small press publisher before settling for the precious life of a full time writer in 1984. He lives in Dublin.