Close to Home

Michael Magee Press Reviews

Exceptional . . . Every detail rings true, every character is fleshy and real and heartbreaking . . . Magee has a remarkable talent - Sunday Times (Laura Hackett)

Taut and impressive, unfaltering and deftly executed . . . [It] feels like that rarest of things: a genuinely necessary book - Guardian (Keiran Goddard)

An exceptional debut destined for novel of the year shortlists - Irish Times (Martin Doyle)

Michael Magee is a born storyteller. By the end of the novel I wanted to book a flight to Ireland just to walk around and imagine who was where . . . I read this in two or three sittings only because I wanted to slow down and spend more time with Magee's considered and companionate writing. I finished it only last month, but plan to take it with me abroad to enjoy it once more - Guardian '2023 Summer Reads' (Derek Owusu)

A vision of a post-conflict Belfast that didn't deliver what it promised, blighted by poverty, pain and memory. But far from being bleak, I laughed out loud many times. And it is full of love. Each character is so vividly drawn that I felt like I had met them somewhere before; even the most flawed of them is treated with dignity and respect, and an absence of judgement that reminded me of Annie Ernaux. And the writing! Supple, rich and demotic - Kneecap meets Chekhov - no one else is doing this. I had great hopes for this novel and Michael Magee has booted it out of the park. Absolutely glorious. -- Louise Kennedy, author of 'Trespasses' Unflinching, direct, disarmingly sensitive . . . Suffusing his narrative with honesty and grace, Magee succeeds in bringing his neighborhood to life for readers and suggests that, amid what seems like a never-ending struggle, there is always room for hope - The Washington Post

Michael Magee's Close to Home, amazingly a first novel, is about what it's like to be young and working class right now in Northern Ireland, and is a tremendous read, tensed and immersive, punching the air between hope and despair, deeply decent, unputdownable - Guardian '2023 Summer Reads' (Ali Smith)

Wonderful. A debut overflowing with years of experience and carefully worked craft. By turns hard-edged and soft-hearted, this novel is a gift from Michael Magee to us all -- Jon McGregor, author of 'Reservoir 13' The message of Michael Magee's dead-on debut novel is universal. At its core, Close to Home is about finding a way to transcend the pain, the people and the place you're born into - The New York Times

A complex and compassionate portrait of modern Belfast by an impressive new talent . . . Close to Home is a working class novel, an Irish novel, a bildungsroman, a novel about the self-congratulatory failures of Northern Ireland's political elite . . . [and a] sharp deconstruction of toxic masculinity - Times Literary Supplement

Lucid and stirring . . . Magee's persistently evocative and beautifully matter-of-fact descriptions of Belfast's landmarks and people are intertwined with a sensitive awareness of the city's social, political and religious history - Literary Review

A convincing, nuanced debut, bleak but powerful, marrying the thematic unsentimentality of Edouard Louis with prose reminiscent of Irvine Welsh - Sunday Independent

A beautiful, rich, tough, kind portrait of a life in the balance. And a great study of masculinity, the brother, the friends, the long-lost dad. It's full of hope -- Russell T. Davies Magee skilfully paints the landscape of a city still scarred by the Troubles . . . The book's themes - masculinity, class and history - don't offer easy resolutions. Instead, Magee deftly conveys the anxieties of a generation facing an uncertain future - Irish Times (Mia Levitin)

A lyrical examination of masculinity, class, and poverty. Magee's prose sings with the tenderness of a writer beyond his years - Electric Literature

Glorious. A bittersweet love letter to Northern Ireland... Magee confer[s] on even the ugliest of things (poverty, sectarianism, illness and death) a kind of sharp-edged elegance - The Times, '2023 Summer Reads'

Beautifully observed and sharp as a knife tip - as real and as raw as the truths you tell on a comedown, in the early hours, in the darkness of some stranger's house. Deeply affecting and badly needed, this is a novel I will be thinking about for a long time -- Lisa McInerney, author of 'The Glorious Heresies' A shard of authenticity, originality and brilliance - The Times (Summer Reads: 'Ask a bookseller')

Michael Magee's first novel is superb. An emotionally true, keenly observed book that goes deep into the troubled territory of home, family and friendship, returning with a message of love -- David Hayden, author of 'Darker With The Lights On' Close to Home does for Belfast what Shuggie Bain did for Glasgow. Its portrayal of a particular kind of masculinity - self-destructive and romantic by turns - is unsparing, funny and desperately sad. Keep an eye on Michael Magee; he's the real deal. -- Patrick Gale, author of 'A Place Called Winter' How beautifully Magee has brought his characters to life, and how intricately he has created their world - Irish Independent (Kevin Power)

Magee is his own man in his restrained approach . . . I took Sean to my heart and the last line of the book left me with a satsifying shiver - The Times (John Self)

The best debut I've read in years - a tender examination of class, masculinity and place -- Nicole Flattery, author of 'Show Them A Good Time' Amazingly assured first novel. Magee is too good a writer... Gentle as well as brutal - The Tablet

As beautiful as it is brilliant. Reading Close to Home is like crossing a frontier into a new and thrilling territory -- Glenn Patterson, author of 'The International' Close To Home announces an exciting new voice - at once open and wary, tender and unyielding - and sharply alive to the pains and discoveries and mysteries of youth -- Colin Barrett, author of 'Young Skins' Ringing out clear and true as a bell, it gleams with tenderness and perception. There are few narrators so unassuming and unaffected, yet so full of sharp intelligence -- Wendy Erskine, author of 'Dance Move' Precise, compulsive, companionable and genuinely moving. Michael Magee writes a world we see far too little of in contemporary literature. We need books like this -- Sean Hewitt, author of 'All Down Darkness Wide' A sharp and humane novel about a young man, and a city, caught in the painful throes of reimagining themselves. It rings with authenticity, and the wisdom of hard-won observation and experience - a hymn to the ways in which art can be a lifeline and an escape. Michael Magee's debut is an important addition to the burgeoning new canon of Belfast literature -- Lucy Caldwell, author of 'These Days' Compulsively readable - you will need to know how this ends! -- Emilie Pine, author of 'Notes to Self' Sharp, immediate, beautiful writing. A vivid portrait of modern Belfast and of how our circumstances shape our lives. Every character is drawn with nuance and complexity, with great precision and attention to detail. I really loved this book -- Rachel Connolly, author of 'Lazy City' Artfully crafted, compassionate, precise and unafraid. I loved this book -- Susannah Dickey, author of 'Common Decency' Close to Home tracks brilliantly written characters across a vividly drawn Belfast - Business Post

It's hard to find fault with a debut novel that unfold its storylines and characters with such care, handling themes of class, masculinity, addiction and trauma with both tenderness and a matter-of-factness - RTE, Book of the Week