First published 2015
A prisoner sits in his cell when guards arrive in the darkness. They lead him through empty corridors to a room with a glowing screen. He must play a video game while hollow laughter echoes around him. Across Ireland, two rural guards discuss the one man who has never written his memoirs. They wonder if his silence makes him dangerous. A young boy knows he will become a serial killer. He begs his father to beat him, hoping violence might change his fate. In the west of Ireland, a couple watches an American cop show. The television drama becomes a mirror for their failing marriage. Two strangers knock on a slacker's door. They tell him he is dead and offer him a job watching others. An older brother cannot stop worrying about his younger sibling's health. A prodigal son comes home to expose the fear his brother hides. Twelve characters struggle to stay themselves in a world that keeps shifting between real and unreal.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, crime, contemporary
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Ireland
Period: 21st-century
207 pages · Kindle Edition · The Lilliput Press
Content warnings: mental-illness