LONDON, 1979.
Young, gifted and Irish, Barry crosses the waves in pursuit of a job and the girl he loves. He soon cons his way into a job at Sellafield, home of Britain’s military-grade plutonium. For a 20-year-old with anger management issues, it is a role full of seductive possibilities, and when the girl remains frustratingly out of reach, it’s anybody’s guess which he’ll destroy first – himself or the entire f***ing planet.
And, if it matters, it’s almost all true.
'Wild, funny … wonderfully immediate … this is a fine debut.'
—Guardian
- 'Brings to mind Trainspotting and Withnail and I… Do not miss this book.'
—RTE - 'If you want to laugh this summer – the kind of filthy guffaw that will make your sun-lounger neighbours wish they were reading what you were reading – buy this tale of sex, drugs and working at Sellafield.'
—Evening Standard - 'Dazzling … the author has a way with words as slick and sudden as a flick knife … a breathtaking storyteller.'
—Sunday Times - 'McKinley is a huge talent… a powerful, original work… There is music in the sentences, a gruff, down-at-heel, Tom Waitsy lyricism… Occasionally the voice allows itself to flare into sunbursts of beauty… A dark, funny, gritty trip of a story that tells it like it is.'
—Joseph O'Connor
Barry McKinley
Barry McKinley’s stories have twice been shortlisted for the Hennessy Literary Award. He was nominated in 2010 for Best New Play, Irish Theatre Awards (for Elysium Nevada). He has written plays for BBC Radio 4 and RTE, and was a prize winner in the O.Z Whitehead/Society of Irish Playwrights award. His work has been staged at Edinburgh Fringe, Dublin Fringe and Main festivals, RSC Fringe, and many more. He lives in Ireland.