A Tale Before Departure

Book excerpt: Can murder and death be predetermined by the utterances of a drunken curse? A stranger carrying an unusual cloth handbag engages in conversation with a fellow traveler during a flight delay. When questioned about the bag, the man relates a gloomy tale. His tale begins when a clap of thunder causes a peacefully grazing bull to stampede into a young man. The trample man's body is later linked to the beating and rape of a young girl found comatose at the bottom of a rocky ravine. Shrouded in mysticism, the travelers' narrative chronicles four generations of tragic marriages-a soothsayer's cursed son forced to flee Ireland during the 'Irish Uprising', a secreted child, an alcoholic mother's neglect, self-imposed isolation and untimely deaths.