A New York Times Notable Book
[A] moving, brilliantly told tale. . . full of human comedy and cruelty. -- Washington Post Book World
From internationally acclaimed author Patrick McCabe, the Booker Prize-nominated novel that tracks the chaotic life of an abandoned orphan who becomes a transvestite and braves the combustible streets of London in the 1970s.
With wonderful delicacy and subtle insight and intimation, McCabe creates Mr. Patrick Pussy Braden, the endearingly hopeful hero(ine) whose gutsy survival and yearning quest for love drive the glimmering, agonizing narrative in which the troubles are a distant and immediate echo and refrain.
Twenty years ago, her ladyship escaped her hometown of Tyreelin, Ireland, fleeing her foster mother Whiskers (prodigious Guinness-guzzler, human chimney) and her mad household, to begin life anew in London. There, in blousy tops and satin miniskirts, she plies her trade, often risking life and limb amongst the flotsam and jetsam that fill the bars of Piccadilly Circus. But suave businessmen and lonely old women are not the only dangers that threaten Pussy. It is the 1970's and fear haunts the streets of London and Belfast as the critical mass of history builds up, and Pussy is inevitably drawn into a maelstrom of violence and tragedy destined to blow her fragile soul asunder.
For Eneas McNulty, a happy, innocent childhood in County Sligo in the early 1900s gives way to an Ireland wracked by violence and conflict. Unable to find work in the depressed times after World War I, Eneas joins the British-led police force, the Royal Irish Constabulary--a decision that alters the course of his life. Branded a traitor by Irish nationalists and pursued by IRA hitmen, Eneas is forced to flee his homeland, his family, and Viv, the woman he loves. His wandering terminates on the Isle of Dogs, a haven for sailors, where a lifetime of loss is redeemed by a final act of generosity. The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty is the story of a lost man and a compelling saga that illuminates Ireland's complex history.
Anita and Me, which has been compared to To Kill a Mockingbird, tells the story of Meena, the daughter of the only Punjabi family in the British village of Tollington. With great warmth and humor, Meera Syal brings to life a quirky, spirited 1960s mining town and creates in her protagonist what the Washington Post calls a female Huck Finn. The novel follows nine-year-old Meena through a year spiced with pilfered sweets and money, bad words, and compulsive, yet inventive, lies. Anita and Me offers a fresh, sassy look at a childhood caught between two cultures.
In this
sparkling debut, Matthew Hollis immerses us in the undercurrents of our
lives. Love and loss are buoyed by a house full of milk, an orchard
underwater, the laws of walking on water. Rainwater, floodwater, flux -
the liquid landscapes which shift relentlessly in Ground Water -
threaten and comfort by turns. Matthew Hollis's poems are brimming with
courage in adversity as well as the promise of renewal, culminating in a
powerful sequence about a father's struggle with terminal illness.
Matthew Hollis's first collection Ground Water was shortlisted
for the Guardian First Book Award, Whitbread Poetry Award and Forward
Prize for Best First Collection. His second collection, Earth House, followed in 2023.