“Declan Burke is his own genre. The Lammisters dazzles, beguiles and transcends. Virtuoso from start to finish.” – Eoin McNamee “This bourbon-smooth riot of jazz-age excess, high satire and Wodehouse flamboyance is a pitch-perfect bullseye of comic brilliance.” – Irish Independent Books of the Year 2019 “This rapid-fire novel deserves a place on any bookshelf that grants asylum to PG Wodehouse, Flann O’Brien or Kyril Bonfiglioli.” – Eoin Colfer, Guardian Best Books of the Year 2019 “The funniest book of the year.” – Sunday Independent “Declan Burke is one funny bastard. The Lammisters ... conducts a forensic analysis on the anatomy of a story.” – Liz Nugent “Burke’s exuberant prose takes centre stage … He plays with language like a jazz soloist stretching the boundaries of musical theory.” – Totally Dublin “A mega-meta smorgasbord of inventive language ... linguistic verve not just on every page but every line.” – Irish Times “Above all, The Lammisters gives the impression of a writer enjoying himself. And so, dear reader, should you.” – Sunday Times “A triumph of absurdity, which burlesques the literary canon from Shakespeare, Pope and Austen to Flann O’Brien … The Lammisters is very clever indeed.” – The Guardian

Monday, January 7, 2008

Bring Guns, Lawyers And Debut Novels

You know things have reached something of a tipping-point when the lawyers get involved. Ronan O’Brien, a solicitor specialising in criminal law for the Irish Director of Public Prosecutions, publishes his debut novel, CONFESSIONS OF A FALLEN ANGEL, on January 10, with the blurb elves crunching his delicious prose thusly:
Following a near-death experience as a child, ‘the narrator’ becomes cursed with the ability to foresee the deaths of people closest to him. These visions come to him in his dreams and, following a disastrous attempt to save a childhood friend from drowning, a set of terrifying events begins to unfold. As a young man, he finds redemption in the arms of Ashling, his beautiful wife. But then the visions return ... Set in the fictional suburb of Rathgorman, CONFESSIONS OF A FALLEN ANGEL is a truly remarkable debut novel that will grip you from the first line and surprise you to the last.
The most surprising aspect for us is that a lawyer is capable of writing anything other than his signature across the bottom of his expense forms, but – knee-jerk cynicism aside – we can testify that the opening to CONFESSIONS … is indeed an intriguing one. We’ll bring you a review as soon as is humanly, or indeed elfishly, possible, m’luds.
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