The Library of Traumatic Memory - Neil Jordan

Neil Jordan's novels often (always?) feature figures dealing with trauma, loss, the past, each struggling with a disconnect in their lives. He has explored this through a number of variations including metaphorical or literal ghosts. In his latest novel, Jordan writing in the realm of futuristic science fiction for the first time, he deals with a speculative scientific approach where memories and trauma can be genetically altered, but the past and the future are linked in other ways that aren't so easily erased. Written in Jordan's familiar, evocative literary style, his latest novel is enriched by his extension into new realms.

The novel is divided into two parts. In part one, the story takes in two timelines, one in the past in 1886, the other 200 years in the future in 2086, both periods lined by two figures from the Cartwright family. They are linked, Jordan style, by innumerable connections, by family evidently, but also by landscape, buildings and memory that is imbued in them. Even 200 years apart there are distinct connections, history leaving traces whose impact is difficult to define - the famine (a deeply traumatic event in Irish history), for example is more recent for the 1886 part of the story, but certainly not forgotten in 2086. The tendrils of deep-seated memory run deep, especially those of trauma.

One connection that links Montagu Cartwright who we already know dies in 1886 with Christian Cartwright in 2086 is that both men are victims of romantic desire caught up in what is bound to be a tragic love triangle. Montagu is an architect charged with designing the Huxley mansion on a remote peninsula in Co. Cork in Ireland. From the moment that Montagu is thunderstruck at the sight of Camilla the wife of Copper Jack, you can guess what leads to the death that has already been indicated for that year by a gravestone viewed by his ancestor Christian, not to mention that the killer and method of death has already been related even before they meet in the novel.

200 years later, Christian Cartwright works as an employee at the Library for Traumatic Memory at the Huxley Institute in the same part of the world. The institute, under Dr Rainer Fischer, is working on experimental projects related to gene manipulation, involving erasing (or replacing) traumatic memories, as well as other dubious projects that are awaiting on legislation being passed or have already been banned by existing laws. Christian, seemingly a victim to the same forbidden desires as his ancestor, has his own buried memories and appears to be "entertaining the dead" via their digital memories. There are however other dark projects shaping the future that Christian is going to come into conflict with Christian's own personal projects and investigations.

The science fiction element is evidently another new expansion of themes that Neil Jordan has explored in his novels and it's a development that really needs to be considered considering the pace of scientific and technological advancement that AI is promising to offer. Evidently that can be a good thing or a bad thing, and as far as dealing with trauma, Ireland, history and family Jordan has some fascinating points to make. Jordan doesn't just relate and contrast past and present, but in a quantum fashion showing that everything has already taken place and coexists at least in memory, in trauma. Even “death” no longer exists as something done and dusted, so to speak. The dead are still with us (another Jordan theme) although cloning has been outlawed since the episode of the "Barron Trump multiples" (a horrific thought), but as Christian ponders "If the dead could be entertained again… what respite could they offer?".

Without giving away any plot details, that is where Part 2 of The Library of Traumatic Memory goes. In a time where technology is advancing much faster than laws can keep up with, it's more than a theoretical question, but one necessary to consider. As far as how Jordan chooses to approach it, well, that's very much in the familiar style of the author. He lays aside much of the parallel events described in Part 1, and puts aside the scientific speculation in favour of dark Gothic and the occult, which is not quite as compelling or as convincing as the first half of the book - for me personally - but necessary perhaps to explore the age old dilemma of the human condition struggling not only with the trauma of the past but also the trauma of living in the present and the trauma - or mercy - of death in the future.

That may not sound like a great selling point for the book, but there is humour to be found in Jordan's entertainingly speculative hints of future history (the aforementioned 'Barron Trump multiples', Billie Eilish pilgrimages and the creation of a 'North Sea Empire'). Primarily of course the main attraction is Jordan's wonderful flowing prose, bursting with imaginative imagery and ideas, some deeply philosophical, some scientifically speculative, some just pure horror. All of it is brought together by Jordan's familiar tragi-romantic subject matter rendered here in poetic future-Gothic yearning that includes drowned bridesmaids, ghost voices, the sound of grasshoppers and the singing of whales, curious coincidences and historical parallels, architects of the impossible, an obsidian mirror that reflects the future, clairvoyant dreams of prepubescent gypsy girls and a spray that can freeze small winged insects in time. It's classic Neil Jordan taken in a thrilling new direction.

Reading notes: The Library of Traumatic Memory by Neil Jordan is published by Head of Zeus/Ad Astra on the 12th March 2026. I received an advance proof eBook courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley.