Friend of this blog, all-round good guy and fantastic author, Declan Burke has his book shortlisted on the 2011 Irish Book Awards.
The blurb?
Absolute Zero Cool is a post-modern take on the crime thriller genre. Adrift in the half-life limbo of an unpublished novel, hospital porter Billy needs to up the stakes. Euthanasia simply isn't shocking anymore; would blowing up his hospital be enough to see Billy published, or be damned? What follows is a gripping tale that subverts the crime genre's grand tradition of liberal sadism, a novel that both excites and disturbs in equal measure. Absolute Zero Cool is not only an example of Irish crime writing at its best; it is an innovative, self-reflexive piece that turns every convention of crime fiction on its head. Declan Burke's latest book is an imaginative story that explores the human mind's ability to both create and destroy, with equally devastating effects.
I had the pleasure of reading this book in draft form and this is a quote from the email I sent to Declan after I read it ...
"I think you have an amazing book here. I'm totally in awe of your ability to craft a sentence. It's a brave book, both in context and content. It has brains, wit and heart and the ending was pitch-perfect. Gave me a wee lump in my throat. This has got cult classic written all over it.
Why "cult"? The aforementioned brains. Sadly - and
I'm certain you're aware of this - not everyone is going to get it. And this is
the only constructive criticism I can offer. Some people - and this is not my
opinion - might see the "brains" part as being self-indulgent - but fuck 'em - I
thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of it. Made me pause and consider what you were
saying. Made me think of my own life in places and as a writer you can't have
more power than that. You managed to philosophise without lecturing your reader and your observations were incisive and absolutely on the button.
This deserves plaudits. I sincerely hope you get
them."
And by jove, the plaudits arrived by the bucketload. The great and the good of crime fiction are queuing up to praise this book.
You can vote for Declan here
And if you haven't yet read the book, you can get it from all the usual suspects or You can buy the book here.
Laters,
Michael
Sounds interesting, I really ought to read it before I vote. Will download it onto my kindle today.
ReplyDeleteExcellent, Sarah. Let me know what you thought of it, will you?
ReplyDeleteDeclan is such a beautiful name!
ReplyDeleteYeah, has that Irish charm.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder, Michael. You put me on to him before and you're right - he knows what he's doing.
ReplyDeleteMichael you need to change the colours of links within the comments, since they are currently invisible :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dezzy - I've been pottering about with the settings and I couldn't work out how to fix this.
ReplyDeletewell you have the colours for all the different texts and titles and links in the design section, in the advance level of it. It has a lot of options so you have to explore it personally.
ReplyDeleteThanks Michael for the heads up. Loved the book and have just posted a review.
ReplyDeleteDez, I'll need to go back to the old drawing board/ blogger.
ReplyDeleteSarah, thanks for spreading the word. We need to let the world know about the talent!