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  • The Glorious Heresies

  • Winner of the Baileys' Women's Prize for Fiction 2016
  • By: Lisa McInerney
  • Narrated by: Shelley Atkinson
  • Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (453 ratings)
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The Glorious Heresies

By: Lisa McInerney
Narrated by: Shelley Atkinson
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Summary

Winner of the Baileys' Women's Prize for Fiction 2016.

Winner of the Desmond Elliot Prize 2016.

Longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize 2016.

Longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year.

He was definitely dead, whoever he was. He wore a once-black jumper and a pair of shiny tracksuit bottoms. The back of his head was cracked and his hair matted, but it had been foxy before that.

A tall man, a skinny rake, another string of piss, now departed. She hadn't gotten a look at his face before she flaked him with the Holy Stone, and she couldn't bring herself to turn him over.

One messy murder affects the lives of five misfits who exist on the fringes of Ireland's postcrash society. Ryan is a 15-year-old drug dealer desperate not to turn out like his alcoholic father, Tony, whose obsession with his unhinged next-door neighbour threatens to ruin him and his family. Georgie is a prostitute whose willingness to feign a religious conversion has dangerous repercussions while Maureen, the accidental murderer, has returned to Cork after 40 years in exile to discover that Jimmy, the son she was forced to give up years before, has grown into the most fearsome gangster in the city.

In seeking atonement for the murder and a multitude of other perceived sins, Maureen threatens to destroy everything her son has worked so hard for while her actions risk bringing the intertwined lives of the Irish underworld into the spotlight....

Biting, moving and darkly funny, The Glorious Heresies explores salvation, shame and the legacy of Ireland's 20th-century attitudes towards sex and family.

©2015 Lisa McInerney (P)2016 John Murray Press

Critic reviews

" The Glorious Heresies heralds the arrival of a glorious, foul-mouthed, fizzing new talent." ( Sunday Times)
"Totally and unmistakably the real deal." (Kevin Barry)
"A real stunner; a wild ride of a read." (Donal Ryan)
"A gripping and often riotously funny tale." (Colin Barrett)
"A punchy, edgy, sexy, fizzing feast of a debut novel." (Joseph O'Connor)

What listeners say about The Glorious Heresies

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  • Overall
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A fantastic listen

If they give out oscars for how well a book is read, Shelley Atkinson deserves one. All the characters are beautifully drawn by Lisa McInerney and dialogue different and Atkinson voices each one beautifully and truthfully to the writers great talent.

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9 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic narration!

I loved the wit of the Irish voice in this story and the talent of the narrator in bringing it to life. Maureen was my favourite - she made me laugh out loud a few times. Beautifully written. Best book I've listened to in a long time.

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6 people found this helpful

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  • Co
  • 23-07-16

Cark bai! <br />

Great stuff, makes me proud, happy to see such talent from the rebel County. Over annunciated at times, but I suppose may not be comprehensible to foreigners otherwise!

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5 people found this helpful

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Best audio book ever!

Listened in commute to and from work, and delighted in traffic jams as loved book!

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Exceptional performance of a great book

The performance definitely brought this book to life. Wonderfully evocative language. Heartbreaking characters. Funny, sad and very real

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2 people found this helpful

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A book I will never forget

This was a fantastic story.....listening to it on Audio was fantastic too as great marrator

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Phew!

Darkly hilarious and heart wrenching all in the same breath. Very moving. Very vivid. Foul, but so linguistically beautiful in its narration.

Bravo!

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2 people found this helpful

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Incredibly moving from start to finish

Narrated absolutely perfectly and beautifully, this book is a heartwrenching tale of generational trauma in a society shattered by the merciless teachings of the Catholic Church and an ode to the healing power of humanity.

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1 person found this helpful

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Anon


Well, James Joyce was right when he called Ireland ‘the old sow who eats her own farrow’ - an accurate picture of the Ireland depicted here. I found this a thoroughly nasty book despite the facts that the narration was superb and McInerney is a very talented writer. At first I found some of the Irish expressions very funny but it wasn’t long before the the variations on ‘fuck’ just wore me down. I listened to most of it but it was so unrelentingly grim and cruel that it actually began to affect my mood. I have to confess that my stepfather was a drunk of Irish stock for whom all money was beer money, but add drugs, crime and prostitution in and the mix began to revive an old depression. So I cut to the end to find just one of the very few moments of redemption or kindness. So I cannot recommend this listen unless your hold on your positivity is very secure and you have an unshakably more cheerful view of Ireland.

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1 person found this helpful

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a fabulous piece of writing brilliantly performed.

layers of depth sufficed with a wry wit. highly recommended. the narrator brought every character vividly to life.

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