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eBook editions

Skippy Dies

by Paul Murray

Skippy Dies Cover

ISBN13: 9780865478619
ISBN10: 0865478619
All Product Details

 

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Why does Skippy, a fourteen-year-old boy at Dublins venerable Seabrook College, end up dead on the floor of the local doughnut shop?

Could it have something to do with his friend Ruprecht Van Doren, an overweight genius who is determined to open a portal into a parallel universe using ten-dimensional string theory?

Could it involve Carl, the teenage drug dealer and borderline psychotic who is Skippys rival in love?

Or could “the Automator”—the ruthless, smooth-talking headmaster intent on modernizing the school—have something to hide?

Why Skippy dies and what happens next is the subject of this dazzling and uproarious novel, unraveling a mystery that links the boys of Seabrook College to their parents and teachers in ways nobody could have imagined. With a cast of characters that ranges from hip-hop-loving fourteen-year-old Eoin “MC Sexecutioner” Flynn to basketball playing midget Philip Kilfether, packed with questions and answers on everything from Ritalin, to M-theory, to bungee jumping, to the hidden meaning of the poetry of Robert Frost, Skippy Dies is a heartfelt, hilarious portrait of the pain, joy, and occasional beauty of adolescence, and a tragic depiction of a world always happy to sacrifice its weakest members. As the twenty-first century enters its teenage years, this is a breathtaking novel from a young writer who will come to define his generation.

Synopsis:

Extravagantly entertaining . . . One of the great pleasures of this novel is how confidently Paul Murray] addresses such disparate topics as quantum physics, video games, early-20th-century mysticism, celebrity infatuation, drug dealing, Irish folklore and pornography. --Dan Kois, The New York Times Book Review

Murray's humor and inventiveness never flag . . . Skippy Dies leaves you feeling hopeful and hungry for life. --Entertainment Weekly (Grade: A)

Dazzling . . . It's the Moby-Dick of Irish prep schools . . . In short, it's like childhood. In shorter, like life. --Jess Walter, The Washington Post Book World (a pick for Best Fiction of 2010)

Funny, tragic, thoroughly captivating . . . One of the most enjoyable books of the year. --Michael Berry, San Francisco Chronicle

Skippy is so desperately, painfully alive that you hope the mere act of reading about him will save him . . . A virtuosic display you'd expect from a writer with the confidence to kill off his title character in the title. --Radhika Jones, Time

Synopsis:

“Extravagantly entertaining . . . One of the great pleasures of this novel is how confidently [Paul Murray] addresses such disparate topics as quantum physics, video games, early-20th-century mysticism, celebrity infatuation, drug dealing, Irish folklore and pornography.” —Dan Kois, The New York Times Book Review

“Murrays humor and inventiveness never flag . . . Skippy Dies leaves you feeling hopeful and hungry for life.” —Entertainment Weekly (

About the Author

Paul Murray was born in 1975. He studied English literature at Trinity College in Dublin and creative writing at the University of East Anglia. His first novel, An Evening of Long Goodbyes, was short-listed for the Whitbread Prize in 2003 and was nominated for the Kerry Irish Fiction Award. Skippy Dies, his second novel, was long-listed for the Booker prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 6 comments:

martyp, January 28, 2012 (view all comments by martyp)
I could not put this book down. Then I recommended it to everyone.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
Rick Borsten, January 21, 2012 (view all comments by Rick Borsten)
As dark as it is hilarious, as audacious as it is grounded, SKIPPY DIES is a wild onion of a story, layer after stunning layer peeled away by the young Irish writer Paul Murray--only in eleven dimensions instead of the usual three. Such dizzying prose at the service of such storytelling; such mastery of character and dialog; so many balls in the air--each performing its own little tour de force--it seems more an act of magic than dexterity. After cartoonishly killing off his 14 year-old protagonist in the first few pages, Murray quickly resurrects him to create a world in which everything is connected to everything else. This is one of the handful of books I've encountered in my half-century of reading that, upon finishing the final sentence with a deep shudder of satisfaction, I felt compelled to go right back to the opening sentence and start all over again.
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Felicity R, January 11, 2012 (view all comments by Felicity R)
Shockingly good - at least, to me, who never expected to be enamored of a group of fourteen year old Irish schoolboys. Heartbreaking, hilarious, and wise. It was difficult to do anything else when I was reading it and it felt too short at 500+ pages. Since I finished I have recommended it to anyone who even got close to asking me what they should read next, and every person who has followed through on the rec has told me they loved it. So stop worrying about how long it is, or what it is about: this is what literature should be, in every way. Go read it now.
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View all 6 comments

Product Details

ISBN:
9780865478619
Author:
Murray, Paul
Publisher:
Faber & Faber
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Edition Description:
Trade paper
Publication Date:
20110831
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
A<BR><BR><P><BR>&#8220;Funny, tragic, thoroughly c
Language:
English
Pages:
672
Dimensions:
8.25 x 5.5 in

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Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
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Skippy Dies New Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$16.00 In Stock
Product details 672 pages Faber & Faber - English 9780865478619 Reviews:
"Synopsis" by , Extravagantly entertaining . . . One of the great pleasures of this novel is how confidently Paul Murray] addresses such disparate topics as quantum physics, video games, early-20th-century mysticism, celebrity infatuation, drug dealing, Irish folklore and pornography. --Dan Kois, The New York Times Book Review

Murray's humor and inventiveness never flag . . . Skippy Dies leaves you feeling hopeful and hungry for life. --Entertainment Weekly (Grade: A)

Dazzling . . . It's the Moby-Dick of Irish prep schools . . . In short, it's like childhood. In shorter, like life. --Jess Walter, The Washington Post Book World (a pick for Best Fiction of 2010)

Funny, tragic, thoroughly captivating . . . One of the most enjoyable books of the year. --Michael Berry, San Francisco Chronicle

Skippy is so desperately, painfully alive that you hope the mere act of reading about him will save him . . . A virtuosic display you'd expect from a writer with the confidence to kill off his title character in the title. --Radhika Jones, Time

"Synopsis" by ,
“Extravagantly entertaining . . . One of the great pleasures of this novel is how confidently [Paul Murray] addresses such disparate topics as quantum physics, video games, early-20th-century mysticism, celebrity infatuation, drug dealing, Irish folklore and pornography.” &#8212;Dan Kois, The New York Times Book Review

“Murrays humor and inventiveness never flag . . . Skippy Dies leaves you feeling hopeful and hungry for life.” &#8212;Entertainment Weekly (

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