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City of Bohane

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City of Bohane

By: Kevin Barry
Narrated by: Kevin Barry
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Shortlisted for the 2011 Costa First Novel Award

Winner of the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award


Forty years in the future. The once-great city of Bohane on the west coast of Ireland is on its knees, infested by vice and split along tribal lines. There are the posh parts of town, but it is in the slums and backstreets of Smoketown, the tower blocks of the Northside Rises and the eerie bogs of Big Nothin' that the city really lives.

For years, the city has been in the cool grip of Logan Hartnett, the dapper godfather of the Hartnett Fancy gang. But there's trouble in the air. They say his old nemesis is back in town; his trusted henchmen are getting ambitious; and his missus wants him to give it all up and go straight... And then there's his mother.

 Contemporary Fiction Dystopian Fantasy Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction World Literature
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Critic reviews

The most arresting and original writer to emerge from these islands in years
Hilarious and unpredictable - and always brilliant
Astonishing.This marks him out as a writer of great promise
Beautiful, arresting, precise...a compelling creation
An electrifying masterpiece
City of Bohane is a book fizzing with energy, juiced up on the possibilities of language and replete with a plot
Exuberant, spine-tinglingly atmospheric... This hyper-real world stuffed with overblown violence and all manner of cartoon-like grotesques is certainly a highly entertaining place to lose yourself in
Exhilarating ...this novel confirms the arrival of a fresh and original voice in Irish literature... Hugely entertaining and original
The prose is sizzling, its molecules rocked by the force of collision...outrageously talented author...The power of the writing - of the writer's imagination - is the siren call that hooks you...It stuns you with its daring...but it works
Addictive first novel...this slangy, plosive-packed prose is what makes the book a success...an expert manipulation of syntax keeps things zingy...it is a plus point that the dystopia bears no allegorical weight, thriving purely as an imaginary realm to be taken at face value
All stars
Most relevant
This novel, as distinct from the sometimes sterile readings by professional readers, is narrated by the books author. His attention to language and flow is brought to light in his passionate reading of his own work.

The novel itself is at times gruesome but also emotive in those moments. One is drawn by the in-depth character depictions into this dark, cruel world where surviving the year is a success. His descriptions of their clothes are overly elaborate and take somewhat from it as you can't skip it, like with a book.

Overall it's a complex and exciting story well told by the books own writer.

A gripping story poetically narrated by the author

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This is a very original novel that is beautifully read by the author and, heaven knows, it would make an amazing film or TV series. Don't expect an easy ride though as it is not an immediately accessible narrative and it does make the listener/reader work for their rewards but once you do tune in it is poetically beautiful with utterly gorgeous imagery. It is highly original but also has echoes of Clockwork Orange, Mad Max and Peaky Blinders with the added ingredient of melancholic Irish mysticism, romance and ultra - violence. That's a powerful cocktail in my estimation. Anyone who loves language and the poetry of language will adore this novel.

Sex, Drugs, Fashion, Feuds and lots of Violence

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I struggled a little to catch everything narrated, as I am not a native speaker and the language used in the book is quite descriptive. Louds of low frequency words. However I enjoyed the book and intend to listen to it again in order to catch some of the missed details. I really enjoyed the dialect as it the tipical one for the Limerick city. I think the Boham is actually Limerick city as the river and everything described matches. Six miles bridge had been named eight mile bridge in the book.

Enjoyable fiction with a lot of Irish dialect.

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A "bloody" great tale of power and succession. The descriptive powers of Barry are unparalleled.

Fantastic

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This is an astonishing book. The incandescently good writing coupled with the phantasmagorical landscape and cast of characters makes for an unforgettable listening experience. It's a kind of mix of Clockwork Orange, Mad Max, and Blood Meridian replete with brute savagery but with an undertow of great humour throughout. I think it is best listened to rather than read as Barry is an outstanding narrator and he brings the exotic characters to life with their mixture of Cork and Limerick working class accents (Barry is a native of Limerick and worked for some years in Cork). That said, I intend to buy the hardcopy version in order to dip into it every now and then to savour the brilliant writing and renew acquaintance with some of the disreputable types who populate the pages. The only other book I do that with is Joyce's "Ulysses". I was sorry when the story came to a close as inhabiting the City of Bohane for an hour or two per day was something to be savoured. Without a doubt, one of the best Audible experiences I've had.

A Work of Genius

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