βExtraordinary . . . Barry takes us on a roaring journey . . . Powerful, exuberant fiction.β β The New York Times Book Review (front cover)
Forty or so years in the future. The once-great city of Bohane on the west coast of Ireland is on its knees, infested by vice and split along tribal lines. There are the posh parts of town, but it is in the slums and backstreets of Smoketown, the tower blocks of the North Rises, and the eerie bogs of the Big Nothinβ that the city really lives. For years it has all been under the control of Logan Hartnett, the dapper godfather of the Hartnett Fancy gang. But thereβs trouble in the air. They say Hartnettβs old nemesis is back in town; his trusted henchmen are getting ambitious; and his missus wants him to give it all up and go straight. Kevin Barryβs City of Bohane combines Celtic myth and a Caribbean beat, fado and film, graphic-novel cool and all the ripe inheritance of Irish literature to create something hilarious, beautiful, and startlingly new.
Review
βThe best novel to come out of Ireland since Ulysses.β βIrvine Welsh
βA grizzled piece of futuristic Irish noir with strong ties to the classic gang epics of yore . . . Virtuosic.β β*The New Yorker
βI found Kevin Barryβs City of Bohane _a thrilling and memorable first novel.β βKazuo Ishiguro, from the Man Booker Prize interview
βAs you prowl the streets of Bohane with Barryβs motley assortment of thugs and criminal masterminds, you will find yourself drawn into their world and increasingly sympathetic to their assorted aims and dreams.β β_The Boston Globe
βThe real star here is Barryβs language, the music of it. Every page sings with evocative dialogue, deft character sketches, impossibly perfect descriptions of the physical world.β β The Millions
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βSplendidly drawn . . . Strikingly creative.β β_The Plain Dealer* (Cleveland), Grade: A
About the Author
Kevin Barry βs short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere. City of Bohane was short-listed for the Irish Novel of the Year and the Costa First Novel awards, and won the Authorβs Club Best First Novel Award. He lives in County Sligo in Ireland.