“Declan Burke is his own genre. The Lammisters dazzles, beguiles and transcends. Virtuoso from start to finish.” – Eoin McNamee “This bourbon-smooth riot of jazz-age excess, high satire and Wodehouse flamboyance is a pitch-perfect bullseye of comic brilliance.” – Irish Independent Books of the Year 2019 “This rapid-fire novel deserves a place on any bookshelf that grants asylum to PG Wodehouse, Flann O’Brien or Kyril Bonfiglioli.” – Eoin Colfer, Guardian Best Books of the Year 2019 “The funniest book of the year.” – Sunday Independent “Declan Burke is one funny bastard. The Lammisters ... conducts a forensic analysis on the anatomy of a story.” – Liz Nugent “Burke’s exuberant prose takes centre stage … He plays with language like a jazz soloist stretching the boundaries of musical theory.” – Totally Dublin “A mega-meta smorgasbord of inventive language ... linguistic verve not just on every page but every line.Irish Times “Above all, The Lammisters gives the impression of a writer enjoying himself. And so, dear reader, should you.” – Sunday Times “A triumph of absurdity, which burlesques the literary canon from Shakespeare, Pope and Austen to Flann O’Brien … The Lammisters is very clever indeed.” – The Guardian

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Brought To Book: Michael Haskins on Dead I Well May Be

"DEAD I WELL MAY BE is the first in Adrian McKinty’s trilogy about transplanted Irishman Michael Forsythe. To escape the Troubles in Belfast, Forsythe finds his way to New York City and its surrounding boroughs. Still young in years, but old in life’s hard experiences, Forsythe finds survival in the Irish underworld of New York not much different from life in Belfast. McKinty’s raw and gritty writing captures the seediness of New York’s ghetto streets and the struggling mixture of diverse people as well as any writer has done today. Forsythe’s youthful plunge into love as a safe haven from the weariness of daily survival is so well written that the surprise ending sneaks up without warning. Along the way, Forsythe cultivates a credo for himself based on loyalty to friends and love for a woman, so strong that his overcoming a series of excruciating experiences is believable; maybe because we would all like to think, under the same circumstances, we would be as faithful to our beliefs. McKinty’s take on what he sees and writes about in America brings a refreshing look at the backside of the country, because it avoids the high-tech tricks that are used today to move a story along. McKinty does this the old-fashioned way, by making us uncomfortable with what we know is the truth."

Michael Haskins’ CHASIN’ THE WIND will be published in spring 2008

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