The Journey Home

Description

A re-issue of a classic Bolger novel. 'The best novel about Dublin since Joyce' Irish Independent Francis Hanrahan, the shy child of grey suburban streets, is Francy at home to his country-born parents. But when he meets Shay, an older, wilder image of himself, he becomes Hano, and is cast out into the night-time world of Dublin - a world of all-night drinking sessions in bars and snooker halls, ubiquitous drugs and the stench of political corruption. The Journey Home is the story of a young boy's struggle towards maturity, set against a shocking portrait of Ireland, a tough urban landscape not a rural Eden.

Dermot Bolger was born in Dublin in 1959. His novels and plays have won many awards, in Ireland and internationally. He has also published several volumes of poetry. Bolger has been a notable and energetic champion of new Irish writers in his capacity as founder-publisher of Raven Arts Press, which he ran until 1992, whereafter he went on to start New Island Books. He is also the editor of the Picador Book of Contemporary Irish Writing, and editor of Finbar's Hotel and Ladies' Night at Finbar's Hotel.

'A film-noir of a book, with a double murder at its core... excitingly and absorbingly told.' Sunday Times 'It is the best novel about Dublin since Joyce. Hano's initiation into sleazy Dublin nightlife and Shay's eventual tragic humiliation is conveyed with a compelling, even reckless, intensity.' Irish Independent 'All 1990s life is there - drink, drugs, political corruption - all the words that have been repeated so often now that they have lost their power to shock. Here, they shock.' Irish Times 'Joyce, O'Flaherty, Brian Moore, John McGahern. This is a succulent Who's Who of Irish Writing, and Dermot Bolger is of the same ilk... an exceptional literary gift.' Independent 'Bolger's themes are moral and sexual degradation and the ubiquity of corruption. The relentless honesty of his writing is savage and refreshing.' Time Out