Close to Home
Winner of the Nero Book Award for Debut Fiction 2023
-
- £5.99
-
- £5.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE ROONEY PRIZE FOR LITERATURE 2023
WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION 2023
WATERSTONES IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE EWART-BIGGS PRIZE 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS’ CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2024
LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE FOR LITERATURE 2024
ONE OF SARAH JESSICA PARKER’S BEST BOOKS OF 2023
BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 ACCORDING TO THE TIMES AND IRISH TIMES
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.
'Staggeringly humane, unfaltering, taut and tender... [It] feels like that rarest of things: a genuinely necessary book' Guardian
'Every detail rings true, every character is fleshy and real and heartbreaking... Michael Magee has a remarkable talent' Sunday Times
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
There are shades of Shuggie Bain, Trainspotting and Mayflies in this emotive debut novel. Our hero Sean escaped Belfast to study English at university but now he’s back and trapped all over again, relying on bar jobs, money-making scams and shoplifted food to survive. His mother suffers depression due to trauma from the Troubles, big brother Anthony relies on drugs and drink to deal with his dark childhood, best mate Ryan is about to emigrate to Australia, while childhood sweetheart Mairéad is keeping secrets. Sean, meanwhile, dreams of becoming a writer but feels excluded from the city’s snobbish cultural scene. One night at a house party, the red mist descends and he knocks out a stranger. This blazingly brilliant novel traces the aftermath of that fateful night as Sean is forced to reckon with who he’s become and who he wants to be. As he stalks his estranged father online, Sean must find the courage to face home truths. As long-buried secrets bubble to the surface, it’s raw, revelatory and redemptive—and a pulsating portrait of class, camaraderie and hedonism in a city scarred by its painful past.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Magee debuts with a consummate and searching bildungsroman of a young Belfast man trying to square his future with a painful heritage. It's 2013, and Sean has just earned an English degree in Liverpool, his departure from Belfast alone a feat among his old mates, who came of age with no prospects in the wake of the 2008 recession. Now he's back home, squatting in a dodgy flat, stealing groceries to survive, and trying to hold down a nightclub job while getting blasted on cocaine and vodka with his friends. The sectarian violence of the Troubles is in the rearview, but the memories are ever-present. His mother, whom he moves back in with after the squat is repossessed, used to hide guns in their house when he was a little boy; and his estranged father narrowly avoided execution by the IRA. In a poignant series of revelations, Magee shows why Sean's father was targeted, why he was saved, and why Sean doesn't see him anymore. Along the way, Sean serves out a community service sentence for assault, another event that Sean gradually unpacks in his thoughtful narration. He also makes new friends from nearby Queen's University, who offer glimmers of a different life. Magee demonstrates profound psychological acuity and a keen sense of place, showing how Belfast has shaped his characters and how the past is etched into the streets. His strongest achievement is in the sensitive portrait of Sean, who doesn't want to lie to himself and eventually works up to the truth. Readers won't want this to end.
Customer Reviews
Authentic
The most authentic book set in post GFA Belfast I have read. Funny sad compelling- Brilliant.
An engaging read
A painful read at times, you really feel for the characters and are completely immersed. Wish it had of carried on, it felt cut short. Didn’t feel like a natural end.