The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe. Pub. by Paperview/Irish Independent, 2005
# 7 in the Great Irish Writers collection.
In this shattering novel, Francie Brady tells us the story of a terrible thing he did back in the 1960s when he was a teenager living close to the Border with Northern Ireland with his alcoholic father and neurotic mother. Francie envies the Nugents, a well-off Protestant family, especially young Philip whom he cheats out of his comic books. After Francie's mother commits suicide, he desecrates the Nugent house and is sent to a reformatory. There he has visions of the Blessed Virgin. Returning home, he gets a job killing pigs. There is only one step from this to Mrs Nugent. Patrick McCabe's disturbing novel is a powerful and unrelenting journey into the heart of darkness. Dark, haunting, often screamingly funny, it chronicles Francie's loss of innocence and chilling descent into madness. No recent Irish novel has stunned the reader with such a macabre, dangerous mind.
In very good condition.
€4 plus postage.