“When I began writing forty years ago I was interested in what was made up.  Then, as I got older, I turned towards literature that engaged with the known or the factual. I became particularly interested in life stories, or biography, the telling by one of another’s life story in order to celebrate or exonerate the biographee.  In I, ANTIGONE I have tried to bring my love of fiction and my love of biography together under one roof, or between two covers if you prefer.
I imagine Antigone, who is a character from myth, as an early biographer – or perhaps even the ancient Greek world’s first biographer. The text is her narration of the life story of another character from myth, her father and half-brother, Oedipus. In her biography, Antigone tells her father’s story as she believes it to have been.  However, she is no hagiographer: she doesn’t deny his wrongs yet she also wants us to know – and this is her thesis – that though we might like to think actions are self-generated and self-directed, when the facts are excavated it isn’t nearly so straight-forward. Yes, choices might be made by malefactors like Oedipus but sometimes their choices are made for reasons outside their control, and often these reasons are ancient, unknown, historical, and impersonal.  In other words, the wrong do wrong, but it’s no good saying they did wrong and apportioning blame and meting out punishment and dispensing justice on that basis alone.  It’s complicated, Antigone argues – and thousands of years after she first examined this issue, we are still grappling with it.  This is why this old story continues to mean so much in the present. Blame, punishment and justice remain as problematic and contested as they ever were.”

“I, Antigone is the work of a master storyteller. It is a novel as clear-eyed, gripping and profound as the great myths it so vividly retells.”

“The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is delighted to support the publication of, I, ANTIGONE, thanks to funding from National Lottery players. Carlo Gébler is an immensely talented writer who has already made a notable contribution to the arts in Northern Ireland and to the positive cultural profile of the region internationally. Congratulations to Carlo and to New Island Books in bringing this important new work to light to be enjoyed by readers everywhere.”

“Fresh and vital...a wonderful achievement.”

“His finest novel to date, [it] changes the way we read fiction.”

“Here is proof - is any were still needed - that Carlo Gebler is one of Ireland’s greatest story-tellers.”