Set in 2002, There is a light and it never goes out 
concerns a nameless Narrator, a man in his late twenties who is dying of some painless, nameless illness. He invites five people who are important in his life to tell him a story: something from the heart and brain and guts, something important to them. In linking chapters the Narrator drip-feeds information about the path of his life, both the present dying days and flashbacks to the past.
He’s a diffident, good-natured, dreamy, fragile person who never had the courage and drive to fully live life. He works in dead-end jobs, reads, hangs out with friends, thinks too much and tries to figure out what he’s supposed to do with himself. Towards the end he shakes the dust off and wakes up to life’s opportunities, before illness strikes and he is forced to give up on these things.
The point of the novel is simple: we never appreciate the beauty and possibility of life until it’s too late. It’s about the importance of simple things: family, friends, conversation, art, love, philosophy, nicotine, romance, memories, connections and dreams; about how the most banal of moments can be loaded with meaning.
This book is available for submission to publishers.
Please email darraghmcmanus (AT) yahoo (DOT) com
Darragh McManus, author and journalist 
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