Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A propulsive, gorgeous, gritty, confessional debut about masculinity, trauma, and class, Close to Home hits you with the sudden force of a speeding car. Dark, funny, and acutely observant, Michael Magee is a blazing new talent in Irish literature.
A man named Sean punches a stranger at a house party. It's an act of violence that ripples outwards--from the squatter's flat Sean shares with his mate, to the court room with its uppity judge, to the graveyards where he'll complete his mandated community service alongside other lost boys and men, to the forgotten streets of working-class Belfast, the one he's walked a million times.
Sean and his friends have it bad, but at least they know how to have a good time--turning tricks, doing gear--until history comes seeping in. The violence inflicted by their own parents, their bosses, the state, and the long shadow that the Troubles cast over everything, felt but never spoken.
A novel about fathers and sons, violence and trauma, and the way political and historical change occurs in our intimate relationships, Magee troubles the boundaries of fiction and life, offering a bracing and intimate vision of the Ireland's past and present.
Synopsis
A confessional, gritty debut novel about masculinity, trauma, and the long shadow cast by the Troubles over working-class Belfast.
A man named Sean punches a stranger at a house party. It's an act of violence that ripples outward--from the squatter's flat Sean shares with his mate, to the courtroom with its uppity judge, to the graveyards where he'll complete his mandated community service alongside other lost boys and men, to the forgotten streets of working-class Belfast, the ones he's walked a million times.
Sean and his friends have it bad, but at least they know how to have a good time--turning tricks, doing gear--until history comes seeping in. The violence inflicted by their own parents, their bosses, the state, and the long shadow that the Troubles cast over everything is felt but never spoken.
A novel about fathers and sons, violence and trauma, and the way political and historical change occur in our intimate relationships, Michael Magee's Close to Home troubles the boundaries of fiction and life, offering a bracing and intimate vision of Ireland's past and present.
Synopsis
Luminous and devastating, a portrait of modern masculinity as shaped by class, by trauma, and by silence, but also by the courage to love and to survive.
Sean's brother Anthony is a hard man. When they were kids their ma did her best to keep him out of trouble, but you can't say anything to Anto. Sean was supposed to be different. He was supposed to leave and never come back.
But Sean does come back. Arriving home after university, he finds Anthony's drinking is worse than ever. Meanwhile, the jobs in Belfast have vanished, Sean's degree isn't worth the paper it's written on, and no one will give him the time of day. One night he loses control and assaults a stranger at a party, and everything is tipped into chaos.
Close to Home witnesses the aftermath of that night as Sean attempts to make sense of who he has become, and to reckon with the relationships that have shaped him, for better and worse.
Drawing from his own experiences, Michael Magee examines the forces that keep young working-class men in harm's way, in a debut novel that shines with intelligence and humanity on every page. Close to Home is an extraordinary work of fiction about deciding what kind of a man you want to be and finding your place in the scarred city you call home.
Synopsis
While growing up in West Belfast, Sean does every-thing he's supposed to do. He works hard, he studies, and he - mostly - stays out of trouble. The thirty-year conflict is over, he's told, and his future is lit with promise.
But when Sean returns home from university, he finds much of the same-the same friends doing the same gear in the same clubs; the same lost broth-ers and mad fathers; the same closed doors; the same silences. There are no jobs, Sean's degree isn't worth the paper it's written on, and no one will give him the time of day. One night, he assaults a stranger at a party, and everything begins to come undone.
Close to Home begins with this sudden act of violence and expands into a startling portrait of working-class Ireland under the long shadow of the Troubles. It's a first novel drawn from life, written with the immediacy of thought. It's about what happens when men get desperate, about the cycles of loss and trauma and secrecy that keep them trapped, and about the struggle to get free.