Author(s): Colin Barrett

Novel | Ireland | Booker Prize 2024 long list

As Ballina prepares for its biggest weekend of the year, 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.

When the reclusive Dev answers his door on Friday night he finds Doll - Cillian's teenage brother - in the clutches of Gabe and Sketch. Jostled by his nefarious cousins and goaded by his dead mother's dog, Dev is drawn headlong into the Ferdias' revenge fantasy. Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Nicky can't shake the feeling something bad has happened to her boyfriend Doll.

Hungover, reeling from a fractious Friday night and plagued by ghosts of her own, Nicky sets out on a feverish mission to save Doll, even as she questions her future in Ballina.

PRAISE FOR COLIN BARRETT AND WILD HOUSES: 'Strange and beautiful... A book to live inside' SALLY ROONEY, author of Normal People  ... 'A gift of true storytelling... Barrett's talent burns up the page' ANNE ENRIGHT, author of The Wren, The Wren .... 'A wonder... A tale for the ages' JON MCGREGOR, author of Reservoir 13  .... 'Masterful... Barrett sits squarely in the centre of a golden generation of new Irish writers' BENJAMIN MYERS, author of Cuddy and The Gallow Pole

 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 *
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 *
Until now, Colin Barrett has made his name as an artist of the short story... Wild Houses is a delight, with a wider space for his talent to spread and for his acutely observed characters to linger * Spectator *

Author Biography: Colin Barrett grew up in County Mayo, Ireland. His stories have been published in the Stinging Fly, Granta, Harper's and the New Yorker. His first book, the short story collection Young Skins, won the Guardian First Book Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His second collection, Homesickness, made the New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year and was a Book of the Year in Oprah Daily and the Irish Times.