WINNER OF THE ROONEY PRIZE FOR LITERATURE 2023
WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION 2023
 
 
Sean is back. Back in Belfast and back into old habits. Back on the mad all-nighters, the borrowed tenners and missing rent, the casual jobs that always fall through.

Back in these scarred streets, where the promised prosperity of peacetime has never arrived. Back among his brothers, his ma, and all the things they never talk about.
 
Until one night Sean finds himself at a party – dog-tired, surrounded by jeering strangers, his back against the wall – and he makes a big mistake.

'Staggeringly humane, unfaltering, taut and tender... [It] feels like that rarest of things: a genuinely necessary book'
Guardian
 
'Every detail rings true, every character is fleshy and real and heartbreaking... Michael Magee has a remarkable talent'
Sunday Times