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One of our Books of the Year 2016.
Shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Breakthrough Author Award 2016.
Winner of the 2016 Desmond Elliott Prize.
Winner of the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2016.
A quite simply sensational debut, one that reaches into the beastly heart of prostitution, drugs, and violence, and makes it relatable and so very very human. Set in Ireland, an accidental murder twists the lives of five Cork residents into warped disarray. The five stories nudge, then collide together as they become one. I found I had to re-read the first paragraph, it felt deliberate, a statement of intent, once I was used to the style, I quite simply devoured this stunning novel. Lisa McInerney writes with eloquent beauty, words either gang up together to punch and kick your thoughts, or they linger, waiting to kiss your soul. Lisa McInerney has a distinct and powerful voice, I found this beguiling, mesmerising and on occasion wonderfully shocking. ‘The Glorious Heresies’ made me giggle, made me sad, made me think, it basically spoke straight to my gut and I loved every earthy, raw second of it. ~ Liz Robinson
Desmond Elliott Chair of judges Iain Pears said: “We knew we had found a major literary figure of the next generation when we made our choice last month – it’s good to see other prize judges have subsequently agreed with us. Lisa is a genuinely exciting writer – there is electricity running through her prose.”
Margaret Mountford, Chair of the Baileys Prize Judges, said: “After a passionate discussion around a very strong shortlist, we chose Lisa McInerney’s The Glorious Heresies, a superbly original, compassionate novel that delivers insights into the very darkest of lives through humour and skilful storytelling. A fresh new voice and a wonderful winner".
If you like Lisa McInerney you might also like to read books by Ruth Gilligan.
Synopsis
The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney
Biting, moving and darkly funny, The Glorious Heresies explores salvation, shame and the legacy of Ireland's twentieth-century attitudes to sex and family.
'He was definitely dead, whoever he was. He wore a once-black jumper and a pair of shiny tracksuit bottoms. The back of his head was cracked and his hair matted, but it had been foxy before that. A tall man, a skinny rake, another string of piss, now departed. She hadn't gotten a look at his face before she flaked him with the Holy Stone and she couldn't bring herself to turn him over.' One messy murder affects the lives of five misfits who exist on the fringes of Ireland's post-crash society. Ryan is a fifteen-year-old drug dealer desperate not to turn out like his alcoholic father Tony, whose obsession with his unhinged next-door neighbour threatens to ruin him and his family. Georgie is a prostitute whose willingness to feign a religious conversion has dangerous repercussions, while Maureen, the accidental murderer, has returned to Cork after forty years in exile to discover that Jimmy, the son she was forced to give up years before, has grown into the most fearsome gangster in the city. In seeking atonement for the murder and a multitude of other perceived sins, Maureen threatens to destroy everything her son has worked so hard for, while her actions risk bringing the intertwined lives of the Irish underworld into the spotlight ...
Reviews
'A punchy, edgy, sexy, fizzing feast of a debut novel from an immensely skilled storyteller with a glorious passion for words. I loved it' Joseph O'Connor, author of Star of the Sea
'Here's a writer who's totally and unmistakably the real deal and whose every page pulses with vim and vitality and mad twisty insights and terrific description and with real tenderness, too' Kevin Barry
'A gripping and often riotously funny tale ... McInerney gifts us a memorable cast that are tough as nails, savagely articulate, and helplessly human' Colin Barrett
'A real stunner; a wild ride of a read' Donal Ryan, author of The Spinning Heart
About the Author
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Book Info
Publication date
31st December 2015Author
Lisa McInerneyMore books by Lisa McInerney
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Publisher
John Murray Publishers Ltd an imprint of John Murray General Publishing DivisionFormat
Paperback384 pages
Categories
Literary FictionAll Shortlists and WinnersBooks of the Year 2016Family DramaReading GroupseBook Favourites
Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)ISBN
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