by Donal Ryan
First published 2001
In a small Tipperary town devastated by Ireland's economic collapse, twenty-one interconnected voices reveal the brutal aftermath of financial destruction. Bobby Mahon, a construction worker whose contractor has vanished, stands at the epicenter of a community unraveling—jobless, betrayed, and increasingly desperate. As unemployment and resentment spread like wildfire, each resident confronts their own fractured hopes: a father's rage, a child's vulnerability, a neighbor's suspicion. When violence becomes a potential escape from economic paralysis, Bobby must decide whether survival means turning against his own roots or finding something unbreakable within the community's shared pain.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, social-issues
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: ensemble-cast, interconnected-narratives
Setting: Ireland, Tipperary
Period: contemporary
159 pages · Hardcover · The Lilliput Press