The Good Son E-Book

Paul McVeigh

• Herausgeber: Salt
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 345

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Winner of The Polari First Book Prize 2016 Finalist for The People's Book Prize 2016 Shortlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2016 Chosen for City Reads 2016 Shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize ELLE Best Books of 2015 The Reading Agency: Books of 2015 Mickey Donnelly is smart, which isn't a good thing in his part of town. Despite having a dog called Killer and being in love with the girl next door, everyone calls him 'gay'. It doesn't help that his best friend is his little sister, Wee Maggie, and that everyone knows he loves his Ma more than anything in the world. He doesn't think much of his older brother Paddy and really doesn't like his Da. He dreams of going to America, taking Wee Maggie and Ma with him, to get them away from Belfast and Da. Mickey realises it's all down to him. He has to protect Ma from herself. And sometimes, you have to be a bad boy to be a good son.

Leseprobe

The Good Son

‘An intensely moving, often riotously funny coming-of-age story that merges the personal and political to create a novel that resonates long after the final page is turned.’ —ALEX PRESTON

Mickey Donnelly is smart, which isn’t a good thing in his part of town. Despite having a dog called Killer and being in love with the girl next door, everyone calls him ‘gay’. It doesn’t help that his best friend is his little sister, Wee Maggie, and that everyone knows he loves his Ma more than anything in the world. He doesn’t think much of his older brother Paddy and really doesn’t like his Da. He dreams of going to America, taking Wee Maggie and Ma with him, to get them away from Belfast and Da. Mickey realises it’s all down to him. He has to protect Ma from herself. And sometimes, you have to be a bad boy to be a good son.

Praise forThe Good Son

‘I was knocked out by this stunningly intelligent, compassionate, and mordantly funny debut novel.The Good Sonis a brilliant portrait of both political and familial unrest, and Paul McVeigh is a wildly important new talent.’

—LAURAVANDENBERG, author ofThe Isle of YouthandFind Me

‘Paul McVeigh has created a strong, unique, and funny protagonist, able to reveal the everyday intricacies and the broader politics of the Troubles in a fresh, engaging way. I fell in love with Mickey Donnelly.’

—SARAHBUTLER, author ofTen Things I’ve Learnt About LoveandBefore the Fire

‘With his debut The Good Son, Paul McVeigh, long a champion of writers, proves himself a writer to be championed. There are flashes of both Roddy Doyle’s Paddy Clarke and Patrick McCabe’s Francie Brady in the character of Mickey Donnelly, who cartwheels fully-formed from the very first page, a spirited, exuberant and utterly engaging young narrator. The circumscribed world he inhabits – a few streets in North Belfast at the start of the Troubles – is vivid and fresh, brought fully to life, and McVeigh’s ear for the rhythms of his characters’ speech is second to none.The Good Son is a coming-of-age story written with a sharp eye and a big heart, and will establish Paul McVeigh as an important new Irish voice with stories to tell.’

—LUCYCALDWELL, author ofAll the Beggars Riding

‘A real page-turner. Mickey Donnelly is a brilliant creation – a captivating, complex boy on the cusp of young adulthood. A poignant, devastating, funny, unforgettable read.’

—VANESSAGEBBIE, authorThe Coward’s Tale

‘I meant to dip intoThe Good Sonand ended up reading it all the way through in a matter of days. I love it. It’s brilliantly sparky and original, the story trips along effortlessly, the characters are all wonderfully alive and Paul McVeigh has a real ear for the music of dialogue and prose.The Good Sonfairly ripples with wicked humour, warmth and coming-of-age wonder.’

—SARAHHILARY, author ofSomeone Else’s SkinandNo Other Darkness

‘I opened Paul McVeigh’s novel just to get a flavour of it and was then unable to put it down until I’d finished. It was like falling down a rabbit hole.The Good Sonreminded me in many ways ofPigeon English– the extraordinary way the voice of the young narrator immediately pulls you into his world, as though that world, dangerous and unforgiving as it is, is the most natural place on earth. From the very first page I knew I was in the hands of an accomplished storyteller, McVeigh’s vibrant and irreverent prose carrying along a novel that is both hopeful and big hearted at its core. It deserves to be widely acclaimed and widely read.’

—CLAIREKING, author ofThe Night Rainbow

‘A vivid, poignant and thrilling tale of troubled boyhood,The Good Sonis a lot better than good – it’s outstanding.’

—TOBYLITT, author ofLife-Like

‘Paul McVeigh brilliantly achieves a very difficult thing: he turns a coming of age novel into high art, with complex yearnings. His young Mickey Donnelly navigates the Troubles like Huck Finn navigates the Mississippi River, prematurely becoming a fully-flighted adult and thereby letting us see the human condition through penetratingly fresh eyes.The Good Sonis a work of genius from a splendid writer.’

—ROBERTOLENBUTLER, Pulitzer Prize-winning author ofA Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

The Good Son

Born in Belfast, Paul began his writing career as a playwright before moving to London where he wrote comedy shows, which were performed at the Edinburgh Festival and in London’s West End. His short stories have been published in literary journals and anthologies, read on BBC Radio 5 and commissioned by BBC Radio 4. The Good Son is his first novel.

Published by Salt Publishing Ltd

12 Norwich Road, Cromer, Norfolk NR27 0AX

All rights reserved

Copyright © Paul McVeigh,2015

The right ofPaul McVeighto be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Salt Publishing.

Salt Publishing 2015

Created by Salt Publishing Ltd

This book is sold subject to the conditions that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out,or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

ISBN 978-1-78463-046-1 electronic

To my Ma