Winner of the Eason Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2013.
Jimmy Rabbitte is back. The man who invented the Commitments back in the eighties is now forty-seven, with a loving wife, four kids ...and bowel cancer. He isn't dying, he thinks, but he might be. Jimmy still loves his music, and he still loves to hustle - his new thing is finding old bands and then finding the people who loved them enough to pay money for their resurrected singles and albums. On his path through Dublin he meets two of the Commitments - Outspan, whose own illness is probably terminal, and Imelda Quirk, still as gorgeous as ever. He is reunited with his long-lost brother and learns to play the trumpet.
The novel is probably the most contemplative that Doyle has written - as a meditation on the importance of family, it is at times almost unbearably moving. -- Edmund Gordon Sunday Times
A visceral tragicomedy - as raw and as funny as anything [Doyle's] written. -- Olivia Cole GQ
Remarkable, relevant and, surprisingly for a book that's ostensibly about cancer, joyful. -- Kevin MaherThe Times
The Guts has life, and heart, and jokes. -- Theo Tait Guardian
Bright, jokey, wry and robust. -- Patricia Craig Independent
Author
About Roddy Doyle
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. His first novel, The Commitments, was published to great acclaim in 1987 and was made into a very successful film in 1991. The Snapper was published in 1990 and has also been made into a film. His third novel, The Van, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was also made into a film. Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha won the 1993 Booker Prize. His most recent novel is A Star Called Henry. He lives in Dublin.
