Summary

Book Two spans from 1980 to 1987. Cyril does not just leave the reception hall of his 1973 wedding. He flees the country, emigrating from Dublin, Ireland to Amsterdam, Holland in “Chapter 6: 1980: Into the Annex.” Now residing in a country where homosexuality is not punishable by law, he lives blissfully in a domestic partnership with his steady boyfriend, Bastiaan Van der Berg, whom he meets at Jack Smoot's Amsterdam bar, McIntyre's. While at the bar, Cyril sees a photograph of Jack Smoot's murdered boyfriend, for whom the bar is named, Jack himself, and the Irish woman Jack says is his best friend hanging on the wall. Cyril is startled to see that the apartment where the photo was taken is close to his childhood home, but he does not recognize that the pregnant woman is Catherine Goggin.

Like Jack Smoot, Cyril and Bastiaan form an unconventional...