Review
In this brilliant first novel, the best of recent memory, a young Irish writer of great psychological dexterity takes on a handful of exciting themes. For a hundred years, Ireland has provided the English-speaking world with its most eloquent writers; Barry McCrea now jojns this illustrious company. --Edmund White
Works Joyce s territory with Beckettian irony and a splash of Patrick White.... Rich in ideas and true to the real world. --Kirkus Reviews
Set in Paris as well as Dublin, McCrea's gay Gen X opus delivers sharp pacing and a sense of place colored by the state of mind that leads a young man to lose a year of his life to odd pursuits. --Booklist
Works Joyce s territory with Beckettian irony and a splash of Patrick White.... Rich in ideas and true to the real world. --Kirkus Reviews
Set in Paris as well as Dublin, McCrea's gay Gen X opus delivers sharp pacing and a sense of place colored by the state of mind that leads a young man to lose a year of his life to odd pursuits. --Booklist
Product Description
A thrilling twist to the suspenseful games of The Rule of Four and The Da Vinci Code sends a gay student reeling through the pubs, nightclubs and streets of present-day Dublin. This memorable debut novel explores Dublin s every corner, including a first-of-its-kind portrayal of its thriving gay nightlife, through the eyes of a young man seduced by a secret society s ancient reading rituals, based on the sortes virgilianae. In brilliant prose, author Barry McCrea gives readers a psychologically gripping tale set within the intertwining worlds of literature and the living.
About the Author
Barry McCrea was born in 1974 and grew up in Dalkey, near Dublin; he was educated at Gonzaga College, and Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied French and Spanish literature. He received a Ph.D from Princeton University in 2004, and currently teaches Comparative Literature at Yale University.
