Wild Houses: One of the Observer's Debut Novels of 2024
One of the Observer’s Debut Novels of 2024
A small-town feud. A madcap kidnapping. A wild weekend to change everybody’s lives…
‘Sublime… [Wild Houses is] a thrillingly moreish novel… and held me captive until the very last page’ Sunday Times
‘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
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.
‘This nastily slow-burn chiller is shaping up to be one of the novels of the year’ Daily Mail, Books to Look Out For 2024
Latest reviews
A superbly well written and thoroughly enjoyable ripping yarn of drug dealers in small town Ireland. Yes, they're mean and violent but Colin Barrett has such a deft touchhe manages to also make them pitiful figures of fun. There is so much warm humour in the book that the hapless crooks are almost likeable. What a great read!
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