Awards
Costa First Novel Award
2009 Shortlist
John the Revelator by Peter Murphy
Publisher: Faber and Faber
A universal story of love, family and betrayal, John the Revelator is narrated in the compelling voice of an introverted, watchful adolescent, John Devine. Stuck in a small town, worried over by his single mother - the chain-smoking, bible-quoting Lily - and the gregarious but sinister Mrs Nagle, John yearns for escape. When Jamey Corboy, a self styled Rimbaudian boy-wonder, arrives in town, John's life suddenly fills with possibilities - welcome and otherwise - and as he hides from the reality of his mother's ever-worsening health, he is faced with a terrible dilemma.
Peter Murphy is a senior writer for Dublin's Hot Press, and has written for Rolling Stone and Music Week. He is also a regular guest on RTE's arts review show The View, and has contributed liner notes to the forthcoming re-mastered edition of the Anthology of American Folk Music. He lives in Enniscorthy.
Judges: "An original and sensitive exploration of adolescence - elegantly and beautifully written."
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