The brilliant first novel by the author of The Bee Sting

Acclaimed as one of the funniest and most assured debuts of recent years, An Evening of Long Goodbyes is the story of Dubliner Charles Hythloday and the heroic squandering of the family inheritance. Featuring drinking, greyhound racing, vanishing furniture, more drinking, old movies, assorted Dublin lowlife, eviction and the perils of community theatre, Paul Murray's first novel is a tour de force of comedic writing wrapped in an honest-to-goodness tale of a man - and a family - living in denial.

'Hilarious, rich and satisfying' The Times Literary Supplement

'Comedy of the highest calibre and a good, fast-paced yarn. An excellent read' Sunday Tribune

'Arguably the funniest debut in years, An Evening of Long Goodbyes ranks with Zadie Smith's White Teeth as a stunning document of an English-speaking metropolis in flux' LA Times

About the Author
Paul Murray was born in Dublin in 1975 and is the author of An Evening of Long Goodbyes, Skippy Dies, The Mark and the Void and The Bee Sting. An Evening of Long Goodbyes was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and nominated for the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. Skippy Dies was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and longlisted for the Booker Prize. The Mark and the Void won the Everyman Wodehouse Prize. The Bee Sting won the Nero Book of the Year Award and the An Post Irish Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Writers' Prize for Fiction and the Kirkus Prize for Fiction. Paul Murray lives in Dublin.

Reviews
A freewheeling adventure through modern Dublin. Hilarious, rich and satisfying * Times Literary Supplement *
A sheer triumph * Ali Smith *
Innately entertaining. The plot scuttles along with Wodehouse-like delirium * Time Out *
Every joke, every observation, every name reverberates with playful nuance and nervy significance; the end result is a gleeful tweak of the New Ireland's proud nose * LA Times *
One of the most entertaining and laugh-out-loud Irish yarns of recent years with a stack of one-liners any stand-up comedian would kill for. Quite hilarious * Irish Independent *
Hugely original and funny. Nothing quite like it has been written before. Its wordplay and knockabout farce has a depth rare in humorous writing * Sunday Times *
Daft, engaging, always thoroughly likeable . . . a writer of great talent * Evening Herald *



Book Information
ISBN 9780241955895
Author Paul Murray
Format Paperback
Page Count 480
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 332g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 29mm