Close To Home

Luminous and devastating, a portrait of young manhood and working class life from Observer Best New Novelist Michael Magee

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.