I Could Read the Sky by Timothy O’Grady and Steve Pyke
First published in 1997, this is a new paperback edition of I Could Read the Sky, published by Unbound in 2023. The photographic novel by Timothy O’Grady and Steve Pyke “concerns the Irish experience of emigration and exile” [Wikipedia]. In 1999, it was made into a film directed by Nichola Bruce.
Timothy O’Grady’s tender, vivid prose and Steve Pyke’s starkly beautiful photographs combine to make a unique work of fiction, an act of remembering suffused with loss, defiance and an unforgettable loveliness. An Irish life with echoes of the lives of unregarded migrant workers everywhere.
The title on the cover is set in confidently big letters from the Black weight of Boogy Brut Poster. This display companion to the Boogy Brut family by Julien Priez is distinguished by the maximized contrast and the minimized counters in a and e. It’s supported by the sans-serif Aperçu (Colophon).
Ironically, the production team at Unbound didn’t take into account that the book has to be bound: the margin on the left is too small. At least in this copy, this unfortunately led to the crease running through the type.
