Born in a storm and named after the biblical son of thunder, John Devine is delivered into a world of mythology: smalltown Ireland. He begins his days eking out a frugal, rural existence, dominated by his charismatic chainsmoking mother, Lily, and their faintly sinister neighbours, the sharp-tongued Phyllis Nagle and “mutton-headed” Harry Farrell, alcoholic handyman. With only a Harper’s Compendium of Bizarre Nature Facts as distraction, John grows up an odd kid, nurturing an obsession with parasitic worms and nightmares about crows.