Here Are the Young Men

Four teen boys, fresh out of school in Celtic Tiger Ireland, face an uncertain future in this dark literary debut—"For sheer bravery and for style, for its integrity of vision and for its uncompromising tone, I . . . admired Rob Doyle's Here Are the Young Men" (Colm Tóibín, The Irish Times).

Named one of the Books of the Year by The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Sunday Business Post, and The Irish Times

Shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year, Irish Book Awards

Meet Matthew, Rez, Cocker, and Kearney. They've just finished school, and are facing the great void of the future, celebrating their freedom in this unpromising adult reality with self-obliteration. They roam Dublin, their own aims the next drink, the next high, and a callow, fearful idea of sex. Kearney, in particular, pushes boundaries in a way that once made him a leader in the group but increasingly makes his friends wary. When a trip to the United States turns Kearney's violent fantasies ever darker, the other boys are forced to face both the violence within themselves and the limits of their own indifference.Visceral and chilling, Here Are the Young Men marks the arrival of a formidable literary talent, channeling an unnerving anarchic energy to devastating effect.

"[An] unblinking depiction of male desperation." —The Independent (UK), Best Debuts of the Year

"A Clockwork Orange, Less Than Zero, Trainspotting, Fight Club: delinquent fiction warrants a bookshelf of its own. Rob Doyle's debut novel, Here Are the Young Men, merits special attention. . . . Here Are the Young Men probably won't go down well in polite society. . . . So be it: brutalism is a young man's game. . . . It's a rough but powerful debut." ―Irish Times

"Darkly exhilarating. . . . God may be dead, but a new literary star is born." —The Sunday Times (UK)