The searing debut novel from the author of collections Young Skins and Homesickness, Wild Houses paints a visceral picture of gang warfare in County Mayo as two outsiders try to pick their way through a landscape of violence and revenge.
Waterstones Irish Book of the Month for January 2025
Winner of the Nero Debut Fiction Award 2024
It’s the biggest weekend of the year and everything is about to change – the thrilling debut novel from the prize-winning author.
In Ballina, the simmering feud between small-time drug-dealer Cillian English and County Mayo’s enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum. Soon the reclusive Dev and Cillian’s teenage brother Doll are drawn headlong into the Ferdias’ revenge fantasy. Meanwhile, Doll’s girlfriend Nicky sets out on a feverish mission to save him.
Life in this ordinary town will never be the same again…
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781529932430
Number of pages: 272
Weight: 192 g
Dimensions: 197 x 128 x 21 mm
Sublime… Wild Houses is a thrillingly moreish novel with some of the sharpest dialogue I’ve read in any recent debut and characters who held me captive until the very last page - Sunday Times
A delicate and beautiful book about the lives of lonely people... Page after faultless page, Wild Houses is a sheer joy to read... Colin Barrett's the real deal, but then we knew that already - Irish Times
So consistently witty and inventive that one struggles to think of recent novels that could stand up to comparison - Guardian, Book of the Day*
With a thrillerish intensity… Barrett expertly handles the combination of narrative-driving dialogue, exhilarating action scenes and quieter moments designed to build tension… I was unable to put Wild Houses down - Times Literary Supplement
After years of short stories, Barrett’s transition to the longer span of the novel is confidently done. Descriptive set pieces are linked and expanded, yet every paragraph is created with care - Financial Times
You’ll love Colin Barrett’s debut novel… Barrett has a keen ear for the absurd that held me captive until the very last page - Sunday Times
With two collections behind him, Barrett is well established as a master both of the short story and the sentence; his debut novel confirms and extends all his promise. Wild Houses is a propulsive, darkly comic and superlatively written account of frustration and misadventure in a small Irish town... The connections between the cast and the past tragedies that have forged them are expertly revealed in a slow-burn study of character and fate that’s also an edge-of-your-seat thriller. Violence and farce mingle in a novel that feels as sharp, funny and bitingly bittersweet as life - Booker Judges, 2024
Barrett’s superb debut novel deepens the world of his two short-story collections… The novel has the tension of a gritty noir thriller and the comic menace of a Pinter play - New Statesman
Barrett can sustain a narrative across a novel without sacrificing the panache and precision that has made him one of the most stylish fiction writers at work today. His prose is a delight from the first page - i
Wild Houses realises life in full and without pity... A palpable sense of human eccentricity, and endurance, is always there, just beneath the surface - Daily Telegraph
I raced through Wild Houses, and as soon as I finished it I wanted to read it over again.
Wild Houses is led by a character driven and pacy plot, but isn’t without its moments of tenderness and contemplation. Colin...
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BARRETT’S MAYO IS NOT BIDEN'S
WILD HOUSES by Colin Barrett
The first time I saw a Mayo landscape was in the 1960’s, through the window of a rosary-praying hymn-singing pilgrimage - slooooow train to the village...
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Although I quite enjoyed this book, because of the excellent news paper reviews I was expecting more. The writing is sharp, the humour and dialogue very good, but it became
quite monotonous in places.
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