The Guts

Description

Jimmy Rabbitte of The Commitments returns in a new novel by Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle Longlisted for the 2015 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Longlisted for the 2015 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Jimmy Rabbitte is back. The man who invented the Commitments back in the eighties is now forty-seven, with a loving wife, four kids ... and bowel cancer. He isn't dying, he thinks, but he might be. Jimmy still loves his music, and he still loves to hustle. On his path through Dublin he meets two of the Commitments - Outspan, whose own illness is probably terminal, and Imelda Quirk, still as gorgeous as ever. This warm, funny novel is about friendship and family, about facing death and opting for life. Includes the short story Jimmy Jazz

Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of nine acclaimed novels including the Barrytown Trilogy, two collections of short stories, Rory & Ita, a memoir about his parents, and most recently, Two Pints, a collection of dialogues. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

A visceral tragicomedy - as raw and as funny as anything [Doyle's] written. -- Olivia Cole * GQ * Remarkable, relevant and, surprisingly for a book that's ostensibly about cancer, joyful. -- Kevin Maher * The Times * Life-affirming and trimphant * Irish Post * A fond, comic treat. * Sunday Times * This is Doyle back in Barrytown and on top form, especially at the festival which closes a glorious book. -- Harry Ritchie * Daily Mail *