Skintown

An energetic, adrenaline-fuelled debut novel from the well-known Irish actor, reminiscent of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting.

A supercharged riot of a debut novel, zinging with confidence and intelligence.

Ciaran McMenamin writes brilliantly. His characters are achingly vivid and entirely credible and the pacing is Olympian. Horrifying and hilarious, Skintown is a compulsive read.

McMenamin writes with verve and honesty. . . it lures the reader into the madcap night and then delivers a hairpin twist.

Exhilarating. . . . A TNT-powered head-rush of a novel soaked in the smell of burning tyres and set to the MDMA beat of 1990s rave culture. . . . Vinny is a hugely witty companion.

I read the first page of this and was immediately hooked. It's rattlingly written, hugely immersive, funny too. Adored it.

McMenamin strikes a skilled balance between acerbic wit and the portrayal of absolute desolation. . . . In vivid colour, he brings to life one unforgettable, game-changing night out. . . . McMenamin delivers truths with the speed of flying bullets and the impact leaves you wounded. At the same time, the hilarity of the novel keeps you hurtling onward, racing to the end. This is an absolute page-turner and an impressive burst out of the traps for first-timer Ciaran McMenamin.

Fizzing with energy . . . as poignant as it's funny.

Scurrilous, saucy, turbo-powered, unputdownable.

If you loved The Glorious Heresies and are looking for the next terrific Irish author, here be Ciaran McMenamin. . . . a cross between Trainspotting and Douglas Coupland, . . . sprinkled with a warm enveloping humour and compassion. It is that good.

A ribald, wise-cracking joyride through young lives lit up by clubs, drugs and ecstatic love. Skintown sings of escape, and the loyalty to music and rapture over the politics of hate.

An exuberant style which vividly captures the wildness of of the 90s rave culture.

Ciaran McMenamin was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, in 1975. A graduate of the RSAMD, he has worked extensively for the past twenty years as an actor in film, television and theatre. His acclaimed first novel, Skintown, was a WHSmith Fresh Talent pick.

&lsquo;We&rsquo;re in the back of a car belonging to the men our mothers told us to never get in the back of a car of. I close my eyes and wonder how many girls will come to my funeral.&rsquo; 
 
Vincent Patrick Duffy has already checked out. Trapped between Skintown&rsquo;s narrow horizons, he chops ribs and chickens in a takeaway, dreaming of escape, joint after freshly rolled joint. 
 
A mindless act of kindness leads to the unlikeliest of business opportunities. Where the government has failed, might the second summer of love and a little pill with a dove on it be the broom to sweep away the hatred and replace it with love, so much love? 
 
Skintown is Vinny&rsquo;s drink- and drug-fuelled odyssey through fighting, fishing, rioting, romance, reconciliation and acid house. Bristling with a restless energy and drunk on black humour, this superb debut is a wild ride. 
 
---- 
 
'Ciaran McMenamin writes brilliantly ... Horrifying and hilarious, Skintown is a compulsive read.' Liz Nugent 
 
'Lures the reader into the madcap night and then delivers a hairpin twist.' Irish Times 
 
'A supercharged riot of a debut novel, zinging with confidence and intelligence.' Joseph O'Connor

Ciaran McMenamin

A powerful reflection on complex Irish loyalties, divisions and identities, a romantic drama, and a page-turning thriller.

Ambitious and powerful...superbly drawn...McMenamin's ambitious novel scores big

[A] violent and tender story where memorable characters battle love, loyalty and the terrible truths of war

There is a smooth grace to his prose...The tension between the compulsions of history and circumstance, and personal moral choice, are played out compellingly

Ciarán McMenamin confirms his exceptional talent with this admirably powerful and authentic novel about the First World War and the struggle for Irish independence. Tremendous.

This gripping novel shifts between [the] race to the south and a slow reveal of what happened between the three men on the Western Front...McMenamin never puts a foot wrong, expertly interweaving the historical and the imagined, right up to his masterly denouement

It's gorgeously written, it's cracking, it runs along with great vivid passages.'

Ambitious and powerful...superbly drawn...a stirring novel broad in location and historical sweep...within a tradition that includes O'Connor, Liam O'Flaherty, Sebastian Barry and Frank McGuinness... Paramount in this tradition is the need to expose the big lies, to help us to see the conflict with fresh eyes - and on all of these counts, McMenamin's ambitious novel scores big

A masterful depiction of the human cost of war...reveals how even in the worst of horrors, and against all the odds, love can survive. McMenamin writes with a passionate intensity.

Set during WW1 and the Irish Civil War, turning on two pivotal stories in Ireland's history -- the foundation of the State, and the Protestant memory of WW1 - the novel follows the story of a brutal IRA man, who now needs the help of his childhood sweetheart, and sister of his dead friend, to cross the border to safety.

‘A powerful and authentic novel about the First World War’ William Boyd

'Ciarán McMenamin confirms his exceptional talent with this admirably powerful and authentic novel about the First World War and the struggle for Irish independence. Tremendous' William Boyd 
 
Longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 
 
Annie, Francie and Archie were inseparable growing up, but in 1914 the boys are seduced by the drama of the Great War. Before leaving their small Irish village for the trenches, Francie promises his true love Annie that he will bring her little brother home safe. 
 
Six years later Francie is on the run, a wanted man in the Irish war of Independence. He needs Annie's help to escape safely across the border, but that means confronting the truth about why Archie never came back.... 
 
 
For readers of Sebastian Faulks, Ian McEwan and Sebastian Barry

Ciaran McMenamin

Praise for The Sunken Road

A powerful reflection on complex Irish loyalties, divisions and identities, a romantic drama, and a page-turning thriller.

Ambitious and powerful...superbly drawn...McMenamin's ambitious novel scores big

[A] violent and tender story where memorable characters battle love, loyalty and the terrible truths of war

A powerful reflection on complex Irish loyalties, divisions and identities, a romantic drama, and a page-turning thriller.

Ambitious and powerful...superbly drawn...McMenamin's ambitious novel scores big

[A] violent and tender story where memorable characters battle love, loyalty and the terrible truths of war

A powerful reflection on complex Irish loyalties, divisions and identities, a romantic drama, and a page-turning thriller.

Ambitious and powerful...superbly drawn...McMenamin's ambitious novel scores big

[A] violent and tender story where memorable characters battle love, loyalty and the terrible truths of war

Books by Ciaran McMenamin

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