Fodder [Paperback]

It would be easy to describe this first novel by a Belfast writer as an exuberant romp, but although exuberant it certainly is, with a fast-moving plot, colourful language and knockabout situations, there is much more to it than that. Gradually it dawns on the reader that there is a serious message in this tale of a 16-year-old 'Prod' who has sustained bullying and punishment beatings and is now determined to get his revenge. Cookie - whose full name, Cuchulain Fitzpatrick, has been partly responsible for the 'Proddie suspicion' that has made him so many enemies - is finding life particularly difficult; his hippie mother has flitted yet again and left him to fend for himself. His brother and his mate's mother both urge him to abandon ship and move off the dangerous estate where cruising thugs find him an easy target but he is intent on his plans for getting his own back. The coups he pulls off are funny, the dialogue is lively and crackling with black humour and caustic asides but the reader becomes more and more concerned for Cookie's safety and sanity. The other main character is Belfast itself. On buses, in taxis and in the stolen cars his friend, Bonehead, takes pride in driving like a deranged Stirling Moss, Cookie quarters the town commenting on its inhabitants, its buildings and changing mood. These mature reflections sit oddly with the boy's crazy adolescent behaviour and clearly come, unadulterated, from Tara West herself. The verdict could be that Belfast youth is 'poisoned' and past redemption, but Cookie's bounce and glorious energy give a more optimistic message. (Kirkus UK)

Fodder is the painfully funny but oddly painful story of a diminutive 'sicksteen' year old misfit called Cookie, who lives on luncheon meat in a loyalist housing estate. When Cookie's mother disappears, he sets out to find her. He's determined too to settle some old scores and wage his own private war against the Proddy powers-that-be. Along the way we meet Prince, Cookie's acid-swallowing, Buckfast-swilling brother, various members of their mother's punk band from twenty years ago, a number of unsettling characters from the loyalist paramilitary ranks, and Cookie's best mate Bonehead, who's determined to join the loyalist hoods. A couple of punishment beatings, a stolen Maserati and a lot of empty Kulov bottles later, it seems that Cookie may have finally bitten off more than even he can chew...Brilliantly and energetically written, Fodder is a highly original debut novel from a distinctive new voice.

TARA WEST was born in 1970. At 18, she went to art college, later gained a degree at the University of Ulster and spent a year working for a local magazine. Now married, Tara works as a copywriter in a Belfast advertising agency and lives in County Antrim.