Rockadoon Shore - Hardcover

Gleeson, Rory

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1473634075 ISBN 13: 9781473634077

Publisher: John Murray, 2017

Synopsis

'Rockadoon Shore is terrific' Roddy Doyle

'One of the most exciting Irish storytellers to have emerged in years' Gavin Corbett

Cath is worried about her friends. DanDan is struggling with the death of his ex, Lucy is drinking way too much and Steph has become closed off. A weekend away is just what they need so they travel out to Rockadoon Lodge, to the wilds in the west of Ireland.

But the weekend doesn't go to plan. JJ is more concerned with getting high than spending time with them, while Merc is humiliated and seeks revenge. And with long-ignored tensions now out in the open, their elderly neighbour Malachy arrives on their doorstep with a gun in his hands . . .

Honest, moving and human, Rockadoon Shore is a novel about friendship and youth, about missed opportunities and lost love, and about the realities of growing up and growing old in modern-day Ireland. Highly energetic and tensely humorous, it heralds a new and exciting voice in contemporary Irish fiction.

About this title

About the Author

Rory Gleeson was born in Dublin in 1989. He graduated with a BA in Psychology from Trinity College Dublin, and went on to earn degrees from Oxford, the University of Manchester, and UEA.

Review

Gleeson has energy and enthusiasm; he is a talent to watch―Sunday Business Post

Fresh in its unpredictability . . . gutsy and ambitious―Guardian

Fierce, funny, vivid, and compelling from the first line. Rory Gleeson is one of the most exciting Irish storytellers to have emerged in years―Gavin Corbett

Think early Big Brother meets Friends, with a sprinkling of fish-out-of-water countryside farce à la Withnail & I . . . it hints at a keen and socially attentive writerly sensibility, which will hopefully be more expansively showcased in due course―Irish Times

Sharply funny―Sunday Express

Rory Gleeson's debut novel reads like A Midsummer Night's Dream by way of Trainspotting, all moonlight and MDMA . . . Savage comedy and inevitable tragedy are unflinchingly and dauntlessly intermingled in this impressive debut, which has a flawless sense of place―Sunday Times

Rory Gleeson brilliantly nails the self-obsession of the young and entitled in this sharply observed tale of sex, drugs and Rockadoon Shore. A brand new and welcome voice speaking for the disenchanted and disaffected―Liz Nugent

Gleeson is particularly good at skewering the unspoken tensions between his characters as the weekend falls apart spectacularly . . . This is an uncomfortable read that's like being in a slow, but mesmerising, train crash―Daily Mail

Gleeson is in fact remarkable not for his voice but for his voices: among other things, Rockadoon Shore is an accomplished act of ventriloquism. Gleeson giving the narrative reins to each of his characters in turn and thus extending his and our sympathy towards them all―Times Literary Supplement

Rockadoon Shore is terrific. It's full of surprises and sharp writing, great belts of dialogue, and a gang of characters who manage to be likeable and unlikeable, clever and thick, loud and vulnerable, entertaining and very, very real―Roddy Doyle

About this edition

• Publisher: John Murray
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1473634075
• ISBN 13: 9781473634077
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304