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Country

By: Michael Hughes
Narrated by: Michael Hughes
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About this listen

 A vivid and brutal reimagining of Homer's Iliad, set in the Troubles of the late twentieth-century.

That was the start of it. A terrible business altogether. Oh, it was all kept off the news, for the sake of the talks and the ceasefire. But them that were around that part of the country remember every bit.
Wait now till you hear the rest.

Northern Ireland, 1996.

After twenty-five years of conflict, the IRA and the British have agreed an uneasy ceasefire, as a first step towards lasting peace. But if decades of savage violence are leading only to smiles and handshakes, those on the ground in the border country will start to question what exactly they have been fighting for.

When an IRA man's wife turns informer, he and his brother gather their old comrades for an assault on the local army base. But the squad's feared sniper suddenly refuses to fight, and the SAS are sent in to crush this rogue terror cell before it can wreck the fragile truce, and drag the whole region back to the darkest days of the Troubles.

Inspired by the oldest war story of them all, this powerful new Irish novel explores the brutal glory of armed conflict, and the bitter tragedy of those on both sides who offer their lives to defend the honour of their country.

(P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited©2018 Michael Hughes Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Political Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Espionage Fiction

Critic reviews

A lively, convincing demotic that captures an Irish idiomatic flow and an echo of Homer's formalities and hexametric lines. It begs to be read aloud
The language is enough to keep you enthralled . . . a violent pounding demotic as memorable in its way as Homer's hexameter
A bold, imaginative second novel
Energetic . . . an ingenious refitting that illuminates both conflicts
Country explodes with verbal invention, rapid juxtaposition, brutality and fun . . . Hughes's linguistic dexterity, his ear for dialogue, his understanding of character, the energy of his prose
Reading this book is like sitting in the pub listening to a good friend tell you stories. It does what only the best retellings can and makes you see the myth anew
This is a hard, rigorous and necessary book which grinds out its beauty as the song cycles of empire and resistance fall silent, choked in their own blood
A brutal and gripping thriller in its own right . . . a consistently engrossing read, written in Ulster-flavoured prose as rich and evocative as you would expect from a professional thespian
Consistently thrilling . . . By enlisting the visceral power of The Iliad to illustrate the violence of the Troubles . . . Hughes has written a striking, memorable book
Prose that crackles with the vernacular of hard men, yet remains compulsively readable throughout . . . a classic story, and a gritty contemporary thriller, this book is an extraordinary achievement
This powerful novel is full of blistering writing that leaps off the page and is perhaps the first great fiction about The Troubles since Dermot Healy
I couldn't put Country down. Tears through the pages at a cracking pace with sharp, smart prose and excellent dialogue
Hughes has to contort some and plot elements to match the exigencies of themes such as honour, religion, slavery and warrior/royal behaviour in the 8th century pre-Christian Mediterranean world. But he does this so cleverly and audaciously that the reader goes with him - for the sheer fun of it, if nothing else . . . In a way, his colloquialised retelling (a tour de force of voice, reminiscent of the heights achieve by Patrick McCabe in The Butcher Boy) is truer to the hexameter rhythms of the original poem
Exceptionally good
Clear-voiced and visceral . . . This enjoyable novel gives voice to fine characters that are challenging, selfish, brutal and worth your time
Thrillerishly bite-sized chapters hurtle towards an explosive climax
Hughes brilliantly reconciles Homeric rhythms with his muscular modern idiom
Country struck me as this year's most daring Troubles novel
All stars
Most relevant
I listened to this book rather than reading a paper copy, because I wanted to hear it in Michael’s voice. I’m glad I did. It was impactful and heartfelt.
The use of the Iliad to frame the story is pure genius. It kept the structure of the novel tight and contained it to a limited number of characters connected to wider groups of people. It definitely made me think about Northern Ireland and reflect on incidents that had been reported in the media - I realised that there was far more to those stories than what had been fed to the public.
I look forward to reading (or listening to) Michael’s next book.

Gripping - makes you think about news reports differently

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Very good story based on the classic. Gives an authentic Irish feel with the language used. "let me tell you something now" only wish it was longer and included the whole story. Of when they invaded and how it would fit in to the story. I thought that achil would of got shot in his achilles at least.

Only wish it was longer and included the invasion

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