Welcome to Litsy!

Irl grp tonight had a good discussion abt Cal, + this great tale of Sean, a young irish man who, on returning from his degree in Liverpool to Belfast, is drawn back into a life dominated by the next party. A random act of violence drags him further down a path to oblivion until he meets an old friend, mariead. A story of the difficulty of life in a city in which the young are still impacted by the past + whether an individual can escape. V good.

I found Close to Home a very familiar account of post-recession Belfast, the despondency and anger that followed the promise of growing up in the early millennium. The writing feels authentic and it‘s a quick one but I‘m curious how engaging it might be for readers from elsewhere? 6/10

A solid debut. Raised in Belfast Sean manages to get through childhood and college despite the turmoil and violence around him. What happens when you‘ve done well but coming home with an education isn‘t as easy as it seems it would be. 4.5 🌟

Not a book that you can say you ‘enjoyed‘ as it‘s a very tough read, but I still loved it as it‘s beautifully written and observed.

It follows Sean as he returns home to Ireland after university, to a difficult life with poverty, drugs, alcohol, abuse and the aftermath of sectarian violence. His grasp on a future becomes more precarious after he drunkenly assaults a stranger at a party and starts to question everything he‘s ever known.

Loved this. Brilliant insight into working class issues, set against the further issues of the next generation after The Troubles in Belfast. Lost myself down the rabbit hole reading about the author too and (as expected) a lot of the content is very close to his own life story.
Can‘t wait to read more from him.