City of Bohane

City of Bohane is a book fizzing with energy, juiced up on the possibilities of language and replete with a plot

Glasgow Herald

Addictive first novel...this slangy, plosive-packed prose is what makes the book a success...an expert manipulation of syntax keeps things zingy...it is a plus point that the dystopia bears no allegorical weight, thriving purely as an imaginary realm to be taken at face value

Sunday Times

An electrifying masterpiece

Joseph O'Connor

Astonishing.This marks him out as a writer of great promise

Guardian

Beautiful, arresting, precise...a compelling creation

Irish Times

Bohane is a post-apocalyptic, low-tech, dog-eat-dog Irish city - and it's mesmerising. The characters' coarse language is vividly poetic, and there's a peculiar optimism about their lives that comes of living in an atmosphere of heart-stopping brutishness. A unique and fascinating book

Claire Looby, Irish Times

Exhilarating ...this novel confirms the arrival of a fresh and original voice in Irish literature... Hugely entertaining and original

Irish Sunday Times

Exuberant, spine-tinglingly atmospheric... This hyper-real world stuffed with overblown violence and all manner of cartoon-like grotesques is certainly a highly entertaining place to lose yourself in

Metro

He makes a bold statement, not only about his considerable talent but also his plot to upend the realm of modern Irish literature with a work of such singular scope and voice that it is bound to be the talk of book circles this year and possibly beyond

Independent on Sunday

Hilarious and unpredictable - and always brilliant

Roddy Doyle

Humour, moxie and a real love of the lingo... A riot of music, gang warfare and a hilarious patois

John Butler, Irish Times, Books of the Year

It's hilarious and visceral

Financial Times

Knocked me out, big time... The characters are demented but also weirdly familiar; an amazing book altogether

Maeve Higgins, Irish Times, Books of the Year

Rampaging

Sebastian Barry, Guardian, Books of the Year

The most arresting and original writer to emerge from these islands in years

Irvine Welsh

The plot is engrossing, with strong bones, yet sinuous and surprising... Barry plays with words with a manic joy and its this use of language that draws the reader in

Time Out

The prose flows easily, underpinned with a wry humour that counters the harsh, modern realism

Big Issue in the North

The prose is sizzling, its molecules rocked by the force of collision...outrageously talented author...The power of the writing - of the writer's imagination - is the siren call that hooks you...It stuns you with its daring...but it works

Scotsman

This is a darkly funny tale of gangland warfare in Ireland that reads like a fast-paced film

Cosmopolitan

vVolent and bleak and yet somehow full of romance, the driving story and powerful use of language make for a heady experience

Erica Wagner, The Times, Books of the Year