Wild Houses

Colin Barrett Press Reviews

This strange and beautiful novel brings to life an entire world. Wild Houses is a book not just to read but to live inside -- Sally Rooney, author of Normal People Colin Barrett quietly, insistently, writes so deeply into his characters you could reach out and touch them. Wild Houses is a gift of true storytelling and Barrett’s talent burns up the page -- Anne Enright, author of The Wren, The Wren

Vivid, controlled, very funny, and very moving - Barrett has the kind of pure writing chops that are vanishingly rare -- Kevin Barry, author of Night Boat to Tangier

Wild Houses is a wonder of a novel - crackling with tension and gifted with fine, strong language. Colin Barrett is a superb storyteller, and this is a tale for the ages -- Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13

Few people truly understand the deep tensions, traumas and banality of violence that can be found in small town life quite like Colin Barrett. Crime and the characters who commit it is his forte, but his writing is never less than masterful, and he sits squarely in the centre of a golden generation of new Irish writers -- Benjamin Myers, author of Cuddy and The Gallow Pole

Colin Barrett proved with his short stories that he's not only one of the most stylistically gifted writers working now, but also one of the most generous. His first novel, Wild Houses, is deft, intricate, unique - restorative in its refusal to be anything but itself. Colin Barrett is a talent of the rarest kind -- Nicole Flattery, author of Nothing Special

A brilliant novel... Wild Houses is swift, tender and honest. It's been a long time since I've been so worried, so heartbroken, so moved by a set of funny misfits. Barrett is one of our keenest observers of the miraculous amid the everyday and of the uncommon beauty of common things, the power of attention. When I finished this novel, I desperately wanted to call Dev, Doll, or Nicky, just to see if they were okay, to see if everything had turned out alright. -- Brandon Taylor, author of The Late Americans

Vivid and wild, funny and chilling - Wild Houses is the business -- Roddy Doyle, author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

Wild Houses has a rare momentum that comes from the rhythms of the sentences, the vivid descriptions and the brilliantly chosen details. The momentum emerges also from the depth and complexity of the main characters and the wide sweep of the narrative. In a small town in the west of Ireland over a few days, a whole world, memorable and edgy, is captured for the reader -- Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn Wild Houses is a taut, brooding thunderstorm of a novel -- Rónán Hession, author of Leonard and Hungry Paul