Opposite Worlds

Opposite Worlds is the follow-up to Eugene's novel Ghosters, which tells the story of Frank Walsh from the age of twelve to twenty-five. In that novel, having lost his faith, Frank leaves the seminary, home and family, and goes to London to forge a new identity. Opposite Worlds finds Frank alone and lonely in London, having been jilted by Marina, his Yugoslav girlfriend, on their wedding day. On the rebound from this, he has a passionate affair with Kalli, a gorgeous Greek singer and belly-dancer, who is a student in his class at the school in Soho where he teaches English to foreign students. When Kalli leaves him, Frank is once again left high and dry. Then one evening, in a folk club in an Irish pub, he hears a pretty young Irish girl singing and instantly falls in love with her. Her name is Mary, he contrives to meet her and she falls in love with him. Love leads to marriage - reluctantly at first on Frank's part - but their marriage proves to be a collision of two very different, indeed opposite, worlds ...