'An original voice' Colm Tóibín

'Duncan brings a new way of seeing' Irish Times

Summer, 1923. Six-year-old Catherine Carolan grows restless on her parents' farm. It's already clear that her intellect will soon outgrow the one-room schoolhouse across the fields. But in post-Civil War Ireland, an education is not an easy thing for a girl to access, and young Catherine is not the only one in her family tiring of rural life.

Summer, 1951. To ease him through his final days, Dr. Josef Alois summons someone from his past. Enter Catherine Carolan, now an Oxford professor. As his mind and body falter, Catherine must decide how far she will follow the man she loves.

A novel in two parts, A Thought Without Collision is a beautiful meditation on how we construct our relationship to the world around us.