Brian Keenan survived his four-and-a-half-year incarceration at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists in Beirut by wandering the wide-open spaces of his imagination. After his release, he went on to write An Evil Cradling, a powerful and moving account of his captivity and subsequently became writer-in- residence in Trinity College. During his captivity Keenan and fellow-hostage John McCarthy escaped the boredom of their cell by envisaging walks in the High Andes and the wastes of Patagonia.
Finally, five years after their release, they journeyed across Chile to see how the reality matched their imagination. Their account of these travels, Between Extremes, will be published by Bantam Press in October. Keenan reads at the Triskel Arts Centre in Cork, next Wednesday at 8 p.m. as part of the Sense of Cork Arts Festival.