The Little Hammer

A majestic and psychologically penetrative narrative, which has the reader crying then laughing from one page to the next.

'Would you believe me if I told you that I was only nine years of age when I killed him?' In a paint-splattered room, a young and successful Irish painter confronts his shocking and murderous past- a dark day on the beach at Bundoran, Co. Donegal, when he quietly dispatched a palaeontologist with his own geological hammer. His life is further disrupted by the beautiful Billy Maguire, an Ingrid Bergman lookalike who leads him all the way to Prague and involves him-and his beloved and devoutly paranoid grandmother-in yet another grievous crime. Struggling to keep reality and unreality apart, he wishes only to be taken seriously-as sinner and lover, artist and murderer.Featuring cameos from Elvis Presley, Shirley Temple and the Pope, the Little Hammer is a triumph of linguistic brio, dark imagination and wild wit from one of Ireland's most exciting new talents.

John Kelly

A universally applicable evocation of male adolescence...and of the gifts that music brings

Kelly has proved that he is one of Ireland's best emerging talents with a substantial gift for comic writing

Rich in familiar horrors but full of weird surprises

Kelly communicates a deep love for the simple and profound influence of music

Witty and well observed and, on the subject of music, inspiring

In Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, in the seventies, nothing happens. Every day. Teenagers Declan Lydon and his trusted friend Spit Maguire stand under lampposts waiting to be overtaken by some hormonal storm, to be enveloped by strange women, to finally make some connection with the glorious, glamorous world they know is out there somewhere. Their salvation comes through music. When, miraculously, Thin Lizzy come to town, Declan goes in to the concert in his brown cardigan and emerges wearing a black leather jacket...<br/>
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<i>Sophisticated Boom Boom</i> is a tender, hilarious account of the agonies and absurdities of growing up in a backwater of pebbledash and Space Invaders. Crucially, though, this is a love letter to the period and the place, and to the liberating, healing power of music that galvanises and transforms.

John Kelly

Praise for Sophisticated Boom Boom

A witty, inventive, exhilarating novel

Wonderful...Very Touching

A universally applicable evocation of male adolescence...and of the gifts that music brings

A witty, inventive, exhilarating novel

Wonderful...Very Touching

A universally applicable evocation of male adolescence...and of the gifts that music brings

A witty, inventive, exhilarating novel

Wonderful...Very Touching

A universally applicable evocation of male adolescence...and of the gifts that music brings

Books by John Kelly

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