City of Bohane

Winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, shortlisted for the 2011 Costa First Novel Award and winner of the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award - this is a cool, comic, violent and lyrical debut novel from one of Ireland's most talented new writers.

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

Hilarious and unpredictable - and always brilliant

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

Beautiful, arresting, precise...a compelling creation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kevin Barry's story collection, There Are Little Kingdoms, won the Rooney Prize in 2007. His short fiction has appeared widely on both sides of the Atlantic, most recently in The New Yorker. City of Bohane is his first novel.

**Winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award** 
 
 ‘A electrifying masterpiece’ Joseph O’Connor 
 
 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 still some posh parts of town, but it is in the slums and backstreets of Smoketown, the tower blocks of the Northside Rises and the eerie bogs of Big Nothin' that the city really lives. 
 
 For years, Bohane has been in the cool grip of Logan Hartnett, the dapper godfather of the Hartnett Fancy gang. But there's trouble in the air. But now they say his old nemesis is back in town; his trusted henchmen are getting ambitious; and there's trouble in the air... 
 
 **One of the BBC’s 100 Novels That Shaped Our World** 
 
Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 
 
 Winner of the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award

Kevin Barry

He writes short stories that will satisfy any reader

This book of short stories seals Barry's rep as one of the most original voices to emerge from the Emerald Isle in some years. Full of acute observation and sly wit, this collection is the ideal companion to his equally excellent novel, City of Bohane

These darkly comic short stories are beautifully written and the author’s keen appreciation of the vernacular makes the characters leap off the page and thump you in the face

Like a spade to the face... There is a vividness to his writing that plants you immediately at its heart

Many consider to be one of the best authors currently in the UK. This collection of short stories shows British penchant for the sublime and the ridiculous at its best

The most exciting Irish short story writer of his generation, one whose best work rivals William Trevor and John McGahern. His language is thrilling: Barry has a Martin Amis-style aversion to writing so much as one dull sentence. Talent this raw and natural simply cannot be taught.

A rhythmic, rural Hiberno-English onslaught, which forces black humour into the bleakest of corners

When I read the first of these short stories, I could immediately see there was something special about this writer... Funny and beautifully observed...

Barry is undoubtedly acquainted with the darker side of existence and unafraid to depict it with humour and great humanity

This vividly told collection of short stories spans love, cruelty and desperation

Barry’s best stories combine playful irony with high emotion

Kevin Barry…isn’t sparing with his powers. Even his throwaway lines are keepers… But what makes this book such a satisfying read is that his memorable sentence-writing is in the service of well-constructed, moving stories

Winner of the Sunday Times short story prize 
 
Winner of the Edge Hill short story prize 
 
 
A kiss that just won't happen. A disco at the end of the world. A teenage goth on a terror mission. And OAP kiddie-snatchers, and scouse real-ale enthusiasts, and occult weirdness in the backwoods... 
 
Dark Lies the Island is a collection of unpredictable stories about love and cruelty, crimes, desperation, and hope from the man Irvine Welsh has described as 'the most arresting and original writer to emerge from these islands in years'. Every page is shot through with the riotous humour, sympathy and blistering language that mark Kevin Barry as a pure entertainer and a unique teller of tales.

Kevin Barry

Praise for Dark Lies the Island

Stealthy and shimmering

He writes short stories that will satisfy any reader

This book of short stories seals Barry's rep as one of the most original voices to emerge from the Emerald Isle in some years. Full of acute observation and sly wit, this collection is the ideal companion to his equ ...

Stealthy and shimmering

He writes short stories that will satisfy any reader

This book of short stories seals Barry's rep as one of the most original voices to emerge from the Emerald Isle in some years. Full of acute observation and sly wit, this collection is the ideal companion to his equ ...

Stealthy and shimmering

He writes short stories that will satisfy any reader

This book of short stories seals Barry's rep as one of the most original voices to emerge from the Emerald Isle in some years. Full of acute observation and sly wit, this collection is the ideal companion to his equ ...

Books by Kevin Barry

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter