The Devil I Know
'Powerful and poignant.' Guardian
Published on 2. May 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-0-571-28343-9 (ISBN)
Description
**SOLDIER SAILOR - THE NEW NOVEL BY CLAIRE KILROY - IS AVAILABLE NOW**
'Smart, funny and stylish.' JOHN BANVILLE
'Kilroy's darkly comic, clever book keeps the reader engrossed and aghast.' Independent
There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile
He made a crooked deal and he blew a crooked pile
He dug a crooked hole
And he sank the crooked isle
And they all went to hell in a stew of crooked bile.
The Devil I Know is a thrilling novel of greed and hubris, set against the backdrop of a brewing international debt crisis. Told by Tristram, in the form of a mysterious testimony, it recounts his return home after a self-imposed exile only to find himself trapped as a middle man played on both sides - by a grotesque builder he's known since childhood on the one hand, and a shadowy businessman he's never met on the other. Caught between them, as an overblown property development begins in his home town of Howth, it follows Tristram's dawning realisation that all is not well.
From a writer unafraid to take risks, The Devil I Know is a bold, brilliant and disturbing piece of storytelling.
PRAISE FOR SOLDIER SAILOR:
'Intense, furious, moving and often extremely funny.' DAVID NICHOLLS
'Astonishing.' Observer
'So powerful.' MONICA ALI
'Exceptionally good [it] sizzles and crackles with life.' The Times
'A huge, small book.' ANNE ENRIGHT
'I lived and breathed beside her narrator. A furious, muffled shout of a book.' DAISY JOHNSON
'Smart, funny and stylish.' JOHN BANVILLE
'Kilroy's darkly comic, clever book keeps the reader engrossed and aghast.' Independent
There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile
He made a crooked deal and he blew a crooked pile
He dug a crooked hole
And he sank the crooked isle
And they all went to hell in a stew of crooked bile.
The Devil I Know is a thrilling novel of greed and hubris, set against the backdrop of a brewing international debt crisis. Told by Tristram, in the form of a mysterious testimony, it recounts his return home after a self-imposed exile only to find himself trapped as a middle man played on both sides - by a grotesque builder he's known since childhood on the one hand, and a shadowy businessman he's never met on the other. Caught between them, as an overblown property development begins in his home town of Howth, it follows Tristram's dawning realisation that all is not well.
From a writer unafraid to take risks, The Devil I Know is a bold, brilliant and disturbing piece of storytelling.
PRAISE FOR SOLDIER SAILOR:
'Intense, furious, moving and often extremely funny.' DAVID NICHOLLS
'Astonishing.' Observer
'So powerful.' MONICA ALI
'Exceptionally good [it] sizzles and crackles with life.' The Times
'A huge, small book.' ANNE ENRIGHT
'I lived and breathed beside her narrator. A furious, muffled shout of a book.' DAISY JOHNSON
More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
288 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-571-28343-9 (9780571283439)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
08/2012
Faber & Faber
€10.99
Available for download
Person
Claire Kilroy's debut novel All Summer was described in The Times as 'compelling ... a thriller, a confession and a love story framed by a meditation on the arts', and was awarded the 2004 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Her second novel, Tenderwire was shortlisted for the 2007 Irish Novel of the Year and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. It was followed, in 2009, by the highly acclaimed novel, All Names Have Been Changed. Educated at Trinity College, she lives in Dublin.