I am so pleased to have the opportunity to read one of the Dylan Thomas Prize 2024 long listers, congrats to everyone who made the list.
Prizing the plot:
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.
Bobs and Books honest review:
A read that packs a punch from the off (quite literally) and continues in its gritty Belfast imagery and way of life.
This doesn't shy away from harsh realities and focuses on identity, labels, belonging and rejection in different guises.
This type of lifestyle I think would be very familiar to Dylan Thomas himself. A writer who struggles with life!
A powerful debut, and I'll be interested to see what this author achieves next. Some vivid descriptions, and no speech marks kept me on my toes.
About the author:
Michael Magee is the fiction editor of the Tangerine and a graduate of the creative writing PhD programme at Queen’s University, Belfast. His writing has appeared in Winter Papers, The Stinging Fly, The Lifeboat and The 32: The Anthology of Irish Working-Class Voices. Close to Home is his first novel. It was shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2023 and won the Rooney Prize for Literature 2023.
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