This debut novel from Canada, violently thrust into the space between Trainspotting and the writings of J.T. Leroy, features hard-edged protagonist Keith Kavanagh. With gritty accounts of sexual depravity, pyromania, substance abuse, and the botched mercy killing of poisoned cat, this dark and comic novel charts the escapades of Kavanagh from his early teens, coming of age in small-town Newfoundland, to his early twenties wandering the streets of Halifax in a demented, drunken hunt for his estranged girlfriend.

Keith Kavanagh lost his virginity at 13 to a woman twice his age, and met his girlfriend while pissing on the hood of her father's truck. He may have burned down the North Side of the Cove, his Newfoundland outpost hometown, but not even his best friend knows for sure.

Hard-drinking, hard-fighting, hard-ticket hooligan Kavanagh is the turbulent anti-hero of this visceral first novel by writer and actor Joel Hynes. Following Keith — along with his girlfriend Natasha and reluctant best friend Andy — from the kitchens and basements of the Cove to the bars of St. John's and the alleys of Halifax, this is a stark and edgy chronicle of violence, drugs, sex, and black humor.

"Rebellious adolescents are pretty much the same the world over, a point borne out by Newfoundland-born Hynes's debut about growing up in a small town in Canada's easternmost province: his teenage characters get high, have sex, and insult and outrage the adults around them. True, they speak a Celtic-tinged dialect (which Hynes captures masterfully), and they commit their minor social crimes in an isolated, rural setting that amplifies their discontent. Hynes's antihero is Keith Kavanagh, a hard-drinking bad boy ('a bit of a savage,' his best friend Andy admits), who strives in self-destructive ways for love and respect. Keith's clipped but evocative narration trades off with the similarly poetic, snappish, adolescent narration by Andy and Keith's girlfriend, Natasha. The self-contained chapters read almost like short stories: the birth of Andy and Keith's friendship; Keith's drug-addled killing of a sick cat; a run-in between Natasha and her father over a sex toy. Raunchy, humorous and energetic, Hynes's novel engrosses, but never truly surprises: the author owes a large debt to Holden Caulfield for Keith's interior monologues and consistent attacks on hypocrisy. But it's a gritty, moving portrait of growing up — or trying to, anyway." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Well written, fervently paced...capturing vivid moments and the strong-willed voice of rabble-rouser Keith Kavanagh." Library Journal

"Violent rock music rendered in prose." Kirkus Reviews

"Riveting debut novel...unconscionably funny....Its capturing of life's unaccountable cruelty is breathtaking....Hynes makes us feel until it hurts." Globe and Mail

"Beautiful, artful...It reads like a 21st Century Huckleberry Finn...capturing how we discover the world and lose it simultaneously." Jonathan Ames, author of Wake Up, Sir!

"A new and distinctive voice...There are images here that are truly burned into the reader's consciousness. Raw and intense." Alistair MacLeod, author of No Great Mischief

Joel Hynes was born and raised in Calvert, Newfoundland. Down to the Dirt was originally published in Newfoundland, where it won the prestigious Percy Janes First Novel Award, and then throughout Canada, where it has received rave reviews. In addition to writing poetry, short stories, stage plays, and screenplays, Hynes is a professional actor and has performed in many feature films, short films, and plays.