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Wild Houses

Wild Houses

Summary

**LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024**

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO BOOK AWARDS DEBUT FICTION AWARD 2024**


‘Beautiful…brings to life an entire world’ SALLY ROONEY


‘Sublime… A thrillingly moreish novel’ SUNDAY TIMES


It’s the biggest weekend of the year and everything is about to change – the thrilling debut novel from the prize-winning author.

In Ballina, the simmering feud between small-time drug-dealer Cillian English and County Mayo’s enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum. Soon the reclusive Dev and Cillian’s teenage brother Doll are drawn headlong into the Ferdias’ revenge fantasy. Meanwhile, Doll’s girlfriend Nicky sets out on a feverish mission to save him.

Life in this ordinary town will never be the same again…

AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST

SHORTLISTED FOR IRISH BOOK AWARDS NOVEL OF THE YEAR


‘A whole world is captured for the reader’ Colm Tóibín


‘As sharp, funny and bitingly bittersweet as life’ Booker Judges, 2024


‘A gift of true storytelling’ Anne Enright


‘A heartbreaker of a debut’ New York Times

Reviews

  • Sublime… Wild Houses is a thrillingly moreish novel with some of the sharpest dialogue I’ve read in any recent debut and characters who held me captive until the very last page
    Sunday Times

About the author

Colin Barrett

Colin Barrett grew up in County Mayo, Ireland. His stories have been published in the Stinging Fly, Granta, Harper's and the New Yorker. His first book, the short story collection Young Skins, won the Guardian First Book Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His second collection, Homesickness, made the New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year and was a Book of the Year in Oprah Daily and the Irish Times.
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