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The Glorious Heresies
On sale
26th May 2016
Price: £19.99
Dylan Thomas Prize, 2016
WINNER OF THE BAILEYS’ WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2016
WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOT PRIZE 2016
LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2016
LONGLISTED FOR THE THEAKSTONS OLD PECULIAR CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR
‘The Glorious Heresies heralds the arrival of a glorious, foul-mouthed, fizzing new talent’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘Totally and unmistakably the real deal’ KEVIN BARRY
‘A real stunner; a wild ride of a read’ DONAL RYAN
‘A gripping and often riotously funny tale’ COLIN BARRETT
‘A punchy, edgy, sexy, fizzing feast of a debut novel’ JOSEPH O’CONNOR
‘He was definitely dead, whoever he was. He wore a once-black jumper and a pair of shiny tracksuit bottoms. The back of his head was cracked and his hair matted, but it had been foxy before that. A tall man, a skinny rake, another string of piss, now departed. She hadn’t gotten a look at his face before she flaked him with the Holy Stone and she couldn’t bring herself to turn him over.’
One messy murder affects the lives of five misfits who exist on the fringes of Ireland’s post-crash society. Ryan is a fifteen-year-old drug dealer desperate not to turn out like his alcoholic father Tony, whose obsession with his unhinged next-door neighbour threatens to ruin him and his family. Georgie is a prostitute whose willingness to feign a religious conversion has dangerous repercussions, while Maureen, the accidental murderer, has returned to Cork after forty years in exile to discover that Jimmy, the son she was forced to give up years before, has grown into the most fearsome gangster in the city. In seeking atonement for the murder and a multitude of other perceived sins, Maureen threatens to destroy everything her son has worked so hard for, while her actions risk bringing the intertwined lives of the Irish underworld into the spotlight . . .
Biting, moving and darkly funny, The Glorious Heresies explores salvation, shame and the legacy of Ireland’s twentieth-century attitudes to sex and family.
(P)2016 John Murray Press
WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOT PRIZE 2016
LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2016
LONGLISTED FOR THE THEAKSTONS OLD PECULIAR CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR
‘The Glorious Heresies heralds the arrival of a glorious, foul-mouthed, fizzing new talent’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘Totally and unmistakably the real deal’ KEVIN BARRY
‘A real stunner; a wild ride of a read’ DONAL RYAN
‘A gripping and often riotously funny tale’ COLIN BARRETT
‘A punchy, edgy, sexy, fizzing feast of a debut novel’ JOSEPH O’CONNOR
‘He was definitely dead, whoever he was. He wore a once-black jumper and a pair of shiny tracksuit bottoms. The back of his head was cracked and his hair matted, but it had been foxy before that. A tall man, a skinny rake, another string of piss, now departed. She hadn’t gotten a look at his face before she flaked him with the Holy Stone and she couldn’t bring herself to turn him over.’
One messy murder affects the lives of five misfits who exist on the fringes of Ireland’s post-crash society. Ryan is a fifteen-year-old drug dealer desperate not to turn out like his alcoholic father Tony, whose obsession with his unhinged next-door neighbour threatens to ruin him and his family. Georgie is a prostitute whose willingness to feign a religious conversion has dangerous repercussions, while Maureen, the accidental murderer, has returned to Cork after forty years in exile to discover that Jimmy, the son she was forced to give up years before, has grown into the most fearsome gangster in the city. In seeking atonement for the murder and a multitude of other perceived sins, Maureen threatens to destroy everything her son has worked so hard for, while her actions risk bringing the intertwined lives of the Irish underworld into the spotlight . . .
Biting, moving and darkly funny, The Glorious Heresies explores salvation, shame and the legacy of Ireland’s twentieth-century attitudes to sex and family.
(P)2016 John Murray Press
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Reviews
A spectacular debut . . . a head-spinning, stomach-churning state-of-the-nation novel about a nation falling apart
All the trappings of a possible future classic . . . a fascinating and accomplished commentary on modern Irish life
A daring, exuberant and generous novel
There is the humour and the sheer, seething, broiling energy of the prose, which is peppered with the kind of language your mother would call unforgivable. As in Roddy Doyle and Irvine Welsh at their best, it doesn't feel gratuitous. It just feels true
A rich, touching, hilarious novel
A big, brassy, sexy beast of a book
A superb debut from a confident and comic writer
Fiendishly hilarious
A rambunctious portrayal of a swaggering off-kilter underclasss
This year's Baileys prize winner, the interlinked stories of chancers, gangsters and no-hopers in Cork city, is crime caper, teen romance and blisteringly dark social satire all rolled into one. Angry, funny and full of heart
