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by Colin Barrett
The riotous, raucous and deeply resonant debut novel from "one of the best story writers in the English language today" (Financial Times) Wild Houses follows two outsiders caught in the crosshairs of a small-town revenge kidnapping gone awry.
With his acclaimed and award-winning collections Young Skins and Homesickness Colin Barrett cemented his reputation as one of contemporary Irish literature's most daring stylists. Praised by the Oprah Daily as "a doyen of the sentence," and by the Los Angeles Times as a writer of "unique genius," Barrett now expands his canvas with a debut novel that contains as much grit, plot, and linguistic energy as any of his celebrated short stories.
As Ballina prepares for its biggest weekend of the year, introspective loner Dev answers his door on Friday night to find Doll English— younger brother of small-time local dealer Cillian English—bruised and in the clutches of Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, County Mayo's fraternal enforcers and Dev's cousins. Dev's quiet homelife is upturned as he is quickly and unwillingly drawn headlong into the Ferdias' frenetic revenge plot against Cillian. Meanwhile, Doll's girlfriend, seventeen-year-old Nicky, reeling from a fractious Friday and plagued by ghosts and tragedy of her own, sets out on a feverish mission to save Doll, even as she questions her future in Ballina.
Set against Barrett's trademark depictions of small town Irish life, Wild Houses is thrillingly-told story of two outsiders striving to find themselves as their worlds collapse in chaos and violence.
"Memorable, character driven, and distinguished by the author's beautiful style…This carefully plotted novel, with its superbly realized Irish setting, is a generous gift to readers." —Booklist (starred review)
"A remarkably resonant portrait of everyday lives in Ireland. Barrett's gritty and raucous first novel features the hallmarks of his acclaimed short story collections Homesickness (a New York Times Best Book) and Young Skins: linguistic dexterity in the service of fully realized characters and vivid depictions of hard-scrabble small-town Irish life." —Library Journal
"Irish writing is on fire and full of ballsy young upstarts like Barrett. This dark, raucous debut novel is about two outsiders who get caught up in a kidnapping in small-town Ireland. Expect drugs, wild parties and revenge, as well as rich language and vibrant characters." —Sunday Times (UK)
"Ever since Barrett's short-story collection Young Skins appeared in 2014, the publishing world has been awaiting his novel. Edgy and sharp, it's a tale of a kidnap and small-time drug dealers in County Mayo. Sally Rooney and Anne Enright are fans, which tells you something." —Financial Times (UK)
"Another year, another rush of novels by hot Irish talent. Barrett has already produced two rapturously received short story collections. This, his debut novel, centres on the kidnapping of a teenage boy in a west Ireland town, before spooling outwards to explore its impact on those who know him. His short stories prove Barrett knows how to craft a beautiful sentence that simmers with impending violence. This nastily slow-burn chiller is shaping up to be one of the novels of the year." —Daily Mail (UK)
"Another much-anticipated Irish debut is Colin Barrett's raucous Wild Houses, about two unfortunate recluses who are dragged into the surreal and violent underbelly of their small town." —I-D (UK)
"A humour-inflected revenge fantasy involving interactions between dealers, enforcers and various other locals in a small Irish town." —Globe and Mail (Canada)
This information about Wild Houses was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Colin Barrett was born in 1982 and grew up in County Mayo. In 2009 he was awarded the Penguin Ireland Prize. Homesickness was named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, and Young Skins won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Guardian First Book Award, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His work has been published in The New Yorker, A Public Space, Granta, and The Stinging Fly. In 2015, Barrett was named a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35."
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