'I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN' SHON FAYE

'A MASTERPIECE. THIS SEARING TALE OF LOVE, SEX AND CLASS WILL RESONATE FOR GENERATIONS TO COME' OWEN JONES

'Intoxicating.' Irish Times

'Electric and intimate' Guardian

'The ultimate summer read' Stylist

Summer in London stops for no-one. Not the half-naked boozers, stoners, and cruisers, the hen parties glugging from bejewelled bottles, the drag queens puffing on hurried fags. It's June 2019, and everyone has converged on the city's parks, beer gardens and street corners to revel in the collective joys of being alive.

Everyone but Maggie. She's 30, pregnant and broke. Faced with moving back to the town she fought to escape, she's wondering if having a baby with boyfriend Ed will be the last spontaneous act of her life. Ed, meanwhile, is trying to run from his past with Maggie's best friend Phil and harbouring secret dreams of his own.

Phil hates his office job and is living for the weekend, while falling for his housemate, Keith. But there's a problem: Keith has a boyfriend and there might not be room for three people in the relationship. Then there's Rosaleen, Phil's mother, who's tired of feeling like a side character in her own life. She's just been diagnosed with cancer and is travelling to London to tell Phil, if she can ever get hold of him.

As Saturday night approaches, all their lives are set to change forever. It's the hottest summer on record and the weekend is about to begin...

One of the hottest debuts of 2024, as featured in GUARDIAN, GQ, ESQUIRE, THE BOOKSELLER, IRISH TIMES, INDEPENDENT, THE SKINNY, HERO MAGAZINE, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

'Zadie Smith-esque in its kaleidoscope of London' Niamh Campbell

About the Author

Oisin McKenna grew up in Drogheda, Ireland, and lives in London. He was awarded the Next Generation Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland to write Evenings and Weekends - the highest award for an emerging artist in Ireland - and it was developed with further funding from Arts Council England. Evenings and Weekends has been awarded a 2022 London Writers Award, which supports London's most promising underrepresented writers. In 2017, Oisin was named in the Irish Times one of the best-spoken word artists in the country. He has written and performed four theatre shows, including ADMIN, an award-winning production at Dublin Fringe 2019, and has written for outlets including the Irish Times on issues such as gentrification and the alienation of Dublin's youth.

Reviews

'A masterpiece. This searing tale of love, sex and class will resonate for generations to come' Owen Jones

'I loved it so much I didn't want it to end. It made me choke up not from tragedy but from the sheer humanity of it' Annie Lord

'I've never seen London so vividly rendered: grubby, sexy, suffocating. I couldn't put it down. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant' Shon Faye

'Electric and intimate. Bottles the exhilaration of youthful desire and possibility, as well as the accompanying instability' Guardian

'A love letter to cities and people and heartbreaks. It made me cry' Eileen Myles

'Astonishing. A magnificent read' Russell Tovey

'Intoxicating. By the end of the summer, this will be a much-thumbed book atop many bedside stacks and best-of lists' Irish Times

'The book insiders will be passing on to everyone this summer' Stylist

'Sexy, clever and shockingly alive. I have never read a book that captures what London feels like so compellingly' Tomasz Jedrowski

'The aching, swelling humanity of this book swallowed me whole' Saba Sams

'A bit like the book version of a Richard Curtis film but with more sex' GQ

'Zadie Smith-esque in its kaleidoscope of London. Compassionate, intelligent, hilarious' Niamh Campbell

'A novel brimming with life' Nicola Dinan

'A stunning debut guaranteed to be one of the books of the summer' Hero

'Captures what it feels like to be worn out by the uncertainties that so often underpin a London life' Independent

'I was entirely consumed by it.' Kate Young

'Rings with passion and hope.' Soula Emmanuel

Book Information
ISBN 9780008604172
Author Oisin McKenna
Format Hardback
Page Count 352
Imprint Fourth Estate Ltd
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Weight(grams) 600g
Dimensions(mm) 222mm * 141mm * 38mm