After reading Bob Atkinson’s wonderful alt-history novel, The Last Sunset, I felt compelled to interview him in regard to some of the themes surrounding his novel and writing.

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Q: Let’s start with an easy question. Your novel mentions uisge beatha, an ancient form of whiskey, many times. In The Last Sunset you describe it being like “liquid nitroglycerin” in the stomach. (He emptied the glass in one suicidal swallow and felt the nitroglycerine detonate in his stomach….”). What can you tell us about uisge and-more important- have you ever tried it?

Bob Atkinson:  Uisge Beatha in Gaelic means ‘Water of life’. In fact the word ‘Whisky’ is derived from that word, ‘uisge’.

Whisky had been brewed in illegal stills for hundreds of years in the glens and islands of Scotland and Ireland. All modern whiskies are descended from those illegal brews. Legend has it that uisge…