Kirjahaku

'Visceral and unpredictable, Silverback is doing what novels do best . . . Told with real intelligence, skill and compassion, this is a seriously impressive novel' COLIN WALSH'Silverback is both a murder mystery and a knottily impressive portrait of a peculiarly Ulster form of masculinity' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH'Highly original . . . Many novels about The Troubles depict the horrors that take place on the street. This one, set at an intriguing remove, exposes the more ambiguous horrors gnawing within' DAILY MAILIn a Belfast courtroom Robert Rusting is on trial for the murder of his father, a former loyalist hardman. On the jury is James Fechner, a middle-aged surgeon in search of meaning in the hushed rooms of justice, inexplicably drawn to the younger man before him.After trial, Fechner can't quite return to life before those days in court. In dingy pubs and rowdy boxing halls Fechner inserts himself into Rusting's world in another guise, following a compulsive pull to an aggressive, unapologetic way of life. So begins a close friendship, a relationship in which a battle for control is tacit but unspoken - and explosive.Silverback is a powerful portrayal of the complications of masculinity and of the line between fragility and violence told in an unforgettable voice.

'Visceral and unpredictable, Silverback is doing what novels do best . . . Told with real intelligence, skill and compassion, this is a seriously impressive novel' COLIN WALSH'Silverback is both a murder mystery and a knottily impressive portrait of a peculiarly Ulster form of masculinity' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH'Highly original . . . Many novels about The Troubles depict the horrors that take place on the street. This one, set at an intriguing remove, exposes the more ambiguous horrors gnawing within' DAILY MAILIn a Belfast courtroom Robert Rusting is on trial for the murder of his father, a former loyalist hardman. On the jury is James Fechner, a middle-aged surgeon in search of meaning in the hushed rooms of justice, inexplicably drawn to the younger man before him.After trial, Fechner can't quite return to life before those days in court. In dingy pubs and rowdy boxing halls Fechner inserts himself into Rusting's world in another guise, following a compulsive pull to an aggressive, unapologetic way of life. So begins a close friendship, a relationship in which a battle for control is tacit but unspoken - and explosive.Silverback is a powerful portrayal of the complications of masculinity and of the line between fragility and violence told in an unforgettable voice.

An intense, questioning novel about marriage, love, family and religion.

An intense, questioning novel about marriage, love, family and religion.

"Fully engaging, well-written, very imaginative . . . A wonderful debut." -- Irish Times "When you read a novel cover to cover in one day, you know it's something exceptional." -- John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Outside an east Belfast mission hall, pastor and family man Samuel Orr meets Anna, a young Beckett scholar. They embark on an intense, passionate affair, their connection both intellectual and erotic. When Anna falls pregnant, the affair is revealed. The repercussions are slow to emerge but inescapable, and the fallout, when it finally comes, is shocking. Over thirty years later Sam, their son, is in New York, living a steady, guarded life, his childhood and family safely abandoned. But when the past once more crashes into his life, he is forced to confront the fears he has kept close all these years. "Brilliantly written throughout . . . With tight, dispassionate, superbly controlled prose, Harrison channels the spirit of Don DeLillo or Camus." -- Irish Independent "Harrison's elegant prose and deeply felt characters create a novel with a fiercely beating heart." -- Kirkus Reviews "Written with burning intensity . . . Powerful." -- Daily Mail

Inside the Hermit Kingdom charts the history of Albanian football from 1945 to 1991, when the country was ruled by modern Europe's most brutal and oppressive regime. The book features a chronology of Albanian football history interspersed with iconic games that shaped the nation's favourite sport. It details the matchday experience in Stalinist Albania, tells the story of a league footballer during the regime years and charts the growth of street football in Hoxhaist Tirana.You'll read about the demise of 'The Party' and Stalinism in Albania and the effects their disintegration had on football, peering beyond 1991 into a future riddled with conflict, uncertainty and, oddly, hope.The era is brought to life by the accounts of Albanians who lived through it, which capture the importance of football to a populace starved of any other source of communal enjoyment. The otherworldliness and innate cruelty of the Stalinist regime provide a terrifying backdrop to their tales.

Discover the rock-bottom moments in the histories of 19 disparate football clubs, through stories rich in colour and context that rarely have a happy ending – but which every fan can relate to. By Phil Harrison, author of the critically acclaimed Inside the Hermit Kingdom: Football Stories from Stalinist Albania – as featured by The Guardian and Daily Mail.Showcasing a miscellany of spectacularly diverse stories from the last five decades from across Europe, this unique book includes:Six guest chapters featuring the pained recollections of established authors (Alex Ireland, Miguel Lourenço Pereira, Paul McQuade), ex-professional footballers (Richard Shaw), musicians (Jonny and Tom Foster; Hardwicke Circus) and social media influencers (Michael Hamlen)Tales involving many of Europe's biggest clubs: Ajax, Barcelona, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Celtic, Manchester United and City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Aston Villa and many moreA close look at the meteoric, single-season rise and fall of Bayer 04, Barcelona's abortive attempt to quell the demons of Francoist Spanish rule, Ajax's staggering 2014 KNVB Cup Final fail, the end of Manchester City's first golden era and Arsenal's 70-game traipse towards oblivionFilled with accounts of the bad and the ugly football experiences that changed the lives of fans – and not in a good way – this gripping book serves as a reminder that football, for most fans, is a perpetual vortex of anguish, near misses and abject disappointment.

You can tell a lot about British society by its television. More than any other country, Britain still gets a sense of itself from the output of its national broadcasters. So what can we learn from the TV of the last two decades? Beginning in 2000, this book explores the televisual contours of Britain, via five themed chapters: Britain's identity crisis; property and the class system; 'banter' and political correctness; the role of the BBC; and the impact of reality TV on politics. Over this period, Britain has become more divided, more fractious and less certain of its place in the world. What did Jamie's School Dinners tell us about our perceptions of the working classes? What does our love of Downton Abbey say about the national psyche under duress? And how did Top Gear help to ignite Britain's culture wars? In this lively and wide-ranging account of twenty tumultuous years, Phil Harrison asks how we got here - and the role television played in the process.