Wild Houses
One of the Observer's Debut Novels of 2024
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- 12,99 €
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- 12,99 €
Publisher Description
**One of the Observer's Debut Novels of 2024**
A small-town feud. A madcap kidnapping. A wild weekend to change everybody’s lives...
‘Sublime… [Wild Houses is] a thrillingly moreish novel… and held me captive until the very last page’ Sunday Times
'Strange and beautiful... A book to live inside' SALLY ROONEY, author of Normal People
'A gift of true storytelling... Barrett's talent burns up the page' ANNE ENRIGHT, author of The Wren, The Wren
As Ballina prepares for its biggest weekend of the year, the simmering feud between small-time drug-dealer, Cillian English, and County Mayo's enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum.
When the reclusive Dev answers his door on Friday night he finds Doll - Cillian's teenage brother - in the clutches of Gabe and Sketch. Jostled by his nefarious cousins and goaded by his dead mother's dog, Dev is drawn headlong into the Ferdias' revenge fantasy.
Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Nicky can't shake the feeling something bad has happened to her boyfriend Doll. Hungover, reeling from a fractious Friday night and plagued by ghosts of her own, Nicky sets out on a feverish mission to save Doll, even as she questions her future in Ballina.
‘This nastily slow-burn chiller is shaping up to be one of the novels of the year’ Daily Mail, **Books to Look Out For 2024**
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Barrett's splendid debut novel (after the collection Homesickness) wraps a taut crime story around a fascinating set of character studies. In County Mayo, Ireland, 20-something Dev Hendrick has an agreement with Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, weed-dealing brothers who stash their product at his late mother's house. His loyalty is tested after the Ferdias show up with a teen named Donal "Doll" English, whom they've kidnapped and expect Dev to shelter until they receive an overdue payment from Doll's older brother. Barrett replays the night of Doll's capture and following three days of captivity in alternating perspectives, primarily Dev's and that of Nicky Hennigan, Doll's girlfriend who was with him at the party from which he disappeared after they had a drunken fight. Nicky, a 17-year-old bartender with plans to go to college, assumes Doll abandoned her, and vacillates from concern to anger as she wonders if there's room in her future for him. As Doll pleads with Dev to let him go, and after Nicky learns of Doll's predicament, Barrett maps the contours of their inner worlds in dizzying and richly textured detail. Even as Barrett ramps up the suspense, the reader has little doubt as to who these characters really are. This is a knockout.