Winterwood

Patrick McCabe was born in Ireland in 1955. His novels include Music on Clinton Street, Carn, The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto. The latter two were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The Butcher Boy won the Irish Times/Aer Lingus Literature Prize in 1992 and was made into a film, directed by Neil Jordan, in 1997. The film Breakfast on Pluto, also directed by and co-written with Neil Jordan, was released in 2006 to great acclaim. Patrick McCabe lives in his home town of Clones, County Monaghan.

'A true original' John Banville 'This is McCabe's greatest work ... A sustained achievement of often dazzling brilliance ... Winterwood is that rarest thing: a novel dealing with humanity at its most twisted and bleak, but one that leaves the reader feeling curiously uplifted. And that's because we realise that we've been standing in an illuminating beam whose source is, and can only be, truly great art' Irvine Welsh, Guardian 'A masterpiece' Observer 'He is the fortunate possessor of a savage and unfettered imagination; his books dissect life's miseries with a gleaming comedic scalpel' The Times