Wild Houses

**LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024**

**WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARDS DEBUT FICTION AWARD 2024**

‘Beautiful…brings to life an entire world’ SALLY ROONEY

‘Sublime… A thrillingly moreish novel’SUNDAY TIMES

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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…

AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST
SHORTLISTED FOR IRISH BOOK AWARDS NOVEL OF THE YEAR
LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2025

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‘A whole world is captured for the reader’ Colm Tóibín

‘As sharp, funny and bitingly bittersweet as life’ Booker Judges, 2024

‘A gift of true storytelling’ Anne Enright

‘A heartbreaker of a debut’ New York Times



Genre: Literary Fiction

"Vivid, controlled, very funny, and very moving - Barrett has the kind of pure writing chops that are vanishingly rare." - Kevin Barry

"Vivid and wild, funny and chilling - Wild Houses is the business." - Roddy Doyle

"Colin Barrett quietly, insistently, writes so deeply into his characters you could reach out and touch them. Wild Houses is a gift of true storytelling and Barrett's talent burns up the page." - Anne Enright

"Colin Barrett proved with his short stories that he's not only one of the most stylistically gifted writers working now, but also one of the most generous. His first novel, Wild Houses, is deft, intricate, unique - restorative in its refusal to be anything but itself. He is a talent of the rarest kind." - Nicole Flattery

"Colin Barrett made us wait for this one, and it was worth it. Sharp and affecting, expansive and playful, Barrett has written a gorgeous novel filled with gorgeous sentences. A dream to read, and no doubt destined to be one of the novels of the year." - Michael Magee

"This strange and beautiful novel brings to life an entire world. Wild Houses is a book not just to read but to live inside." - Sally Rooney

"Wild Houses is swift, tender, and honest. It's been a long time since I've been so worried, so heartbroken, so moved by a set of funny misfits. Barrett is one of our keenest observers of the miraculous amid the everyday and of the uncommon beauty of common things, the power of attention. When I finished this novel, I desperately wanted to call Dev, Doll, or Nicky, just to see if they were okay, to see if everything had turned out alright. A brilliant novel." - Brandon Taylor

"Wild Houses has a rare momentum that comes from the rhythms of the sentences, the vivid descriptions and the brilliantly chosen details. The momentum emerges also from the depth and complexity of the main characters and the wide sweep of the narrative. In a small town in the west of Ireland over a few days, a whole world, memorable and edgy, is captured for the reader." - Colm Tóibín