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Evenings and Weekends

Oisín McKenna

$32.99

Paperback

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English
HARPER360
01 May 2024
'I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN' SHON FAYE

'A MASTERPIECE. THIS SEARING TALE OF LOVE, SEX AND CLASS WILL RESONATE FOR GENERATIONS TO COME' OWEN JONES

'Intoxicating. By the end of the summer, this will be a much-thumbed book atop many bedside stacks and best-of lists' Irish Times

'Electric and intimate. Bottles the exhilaration of youthful desire and possibility, as well as the accompanying instability' Guardian

Summer in London stops for no-one. Not the half-naked boozers, stoners, and cruisers, the hen parties glugging from bejewelled bottles, the drag queens puffing on hurried fags. It’s June 2019, and everyone has converged on the city’s parks, beer gardens and street corners to revel in the collective joys of being alive.

Everyone but Maggie. She’s 30, pregnant and broke. Faced with moving back to the town she fought to escape, she’s wondering if having a baby with boyfriend Ed will be the last spontaneous act of her life. Ed, meanwhile, is trying to run from his past with Maggie’s best friend Phil and harbouring secret dreams of his own.

Phil hates his office job and is living for the weekend, while falling for his housemate, Keith. But there’s a problem: Keith has a boyfriend and there might not be room for three people in the relationship. Then there’s Rosaleen, Phil’s mother, who’s tired of feeling like a side character in her own life. She’s just been diagnosed with cancer and is travelling to London to tell Phil, if she can ever get hold of him.

As Saturday night approaches, all their lives are set to change forever. It’s the hottest summer on record and the weekend is about to begin…

One of the hottest debuts of 2024, as featured in GUARDIAN, GQ, ESQUIRE, THE BOOKSELLER, IRISH TIMES, INDEPENDENT, THE SKINNY, HERO MAGAZINE, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

By:  
Imprint:   HARPER360
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 216mm,  Width: 135mm,  Spine: 30mm
Weight:   620g
ISBN:   9780008604189
ISBN 10:   0008604185
Pages:   304
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Oisín Mckenna was born and raised in Drogheda, Ireland and lives in London. He was awarded the Next Generation Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland to write Evenings and Weekends - the highest award for an emerging artist in Ireland - and it was developed with further funding from Arts Council England. Evenings and Weekends has been awarded a 2022 London Writers Award, which supports London's most promising underrepresented writers. In 2017, Oisín was named in the Irish Times one of the best-spoken word artists in the country. He has written and performed four theatre shows, including ADMIN, an award-winning production at Dublin Fringe 2019, and has written for outlets including the Irish Times on issues such as gentrification and the alienation of Dublin's youth.

Reviews for Evenings and Weekends

‘The characters in Evenings and Weekends are almost shockingly alive. I was fascinated by the mix of zeitgeisty humor, wisdom, and existential angst. I have never read a book that captures what London feels like to young people quite so compellingly.’ Tomasz Jedrowski, author of Swimming in the Dark 'The aching, swelling humanity of this book swallowed me whole' Saba Sams, author of Send Nudes 'A bit like the book version of a Richard Curtis film but with more grit.' GQ 'Zadie Smith-esque in its kaleidoscope of London. Compassionate, intelligent, hilarious.' Niamh Campbell, author of This Happy 'Evenings and Weekends examines the city and its inhabitants with beauty and intellect. The result is a novel brimming with life, confronting the difficult and ugly with a fresh and charming levity. I can’t wait to read what McKenna writes next' Nicola Dinan, author of Bellies 'A stunning debut guaranteed to be one of the books of the summer.' Hero 'I loved Evenings and Weekends. I was entirely consumed by it. McKenna's characters – their flats, their relationships, their parties, their London – are so recognisable and so deeply truthful that I'm half-convinced I was there too, on that hot, sweaty weekend in 2019, when a whale washed up on the banks of the Thames.’ Kate Young, author of Experienced 'I tore through Evenings and Weekends, a story which is full of life and rings with passion and hope. A brilliant study of the sins of modern Britain and the energy of contemporary London' Soula Emmanuel, author of Wild Geese 'One of the most promising spoken word artists in the country, who avoids misty-eyed accounts of society and instead cuts through with brilliant observational political commentary' Irish Times


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