Absolute Zero Cool - Softcover

Burke, Declan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1907593314 ISBN 13: 9781907593314

Publisher: Liberties Press, 2014

Synopsis

Absolute Zero Cool is a post-modern take on the crime thriller genre. Adrift in the half-life limbo of an unpublished novel, hospital porter Billy needs to up the stakes. Euthanasia simply isn’t shocking anymore; would blowing up his hospital be enough to see Billy published, or be damned? What follows is a gripping tale that subverts the crime genre’s grand tradition of liberal sadism, a novel that both excites and disturbs in equal measure.

Absolute Zero Cool is not only an example of Irish crime writing at its best; it is an innovative, self-reflexive piece that turns every convention of crime fiction on its head. Declan Burke’s latest book is "an imaginative story that explores the human mind’s ability to both create and destroy, with equally devastating effects."

About this title

About the Author

DECLAN BURKE is one of Ireland’s leading crime fiction authors. He reviews regularly for a variety of national newspapers and magazines, and hosts the website Crime Always Pays. Declan has published several novels including Absolute Zero Cool which was shortlisted in the crime fiction section for the Irish Book Awards 2011, and received the Goldsboro/Crimefest ‘Last Laugh’ Award for Best Humorous Crime Novel in 2012. He is the editor of Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century (2011), and the co-editor, with John Connolly, of Books to Die For (2012). Declan lives in Wicklow with his wife and daughter, where he is not allowed to own a cat, or be owned by one.

Reviews

A fictional version of writer Burke is confronted by a character from an unfinished novel. Karlsson, the now-corporeal character, is irked at the limbo he has been left in. Burke is under pressure from his publisher to submit his next manuscript, but Karlsson is alternately charming and cheeky, and Burke agrees to let him write his own story, the tale of a poorly paid Irish hospital orderly who euthanizes terminal patients and is planning to blow up the sprawling hospital. Ultimately, Burke is forced to thwart Billy’s (Karlsson renames himself) plan to destroy the hospital. Metafiction? Postmodern noir? These and other labels will be applied to Burke’s newest; any might be apt, but none is sufficient. Absolute Zero Cool is largely a literary novel that draws on history, mythology, and literature to insightfully discuss writing, books, parenting, relationships, health care, and dying with dignity. Bits of Burke’s comic noir (The Big O, 2008) appear, but they serve to subvert the form. Noir fans may not care for this one, but lovers of literary fiction will find much to savor. --Thomas Gaughan

Edition details

• Publisher: Liberties Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1907593314
• ISBN 13: 9781907593314
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 238