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Youth

Youth

Edited by

Author: Kevin Curran
€17,95 EUR
€17,95 EUR
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Youth dives into the lives of four teenagers in Ireland’s most diverse town, Balbriggan. Angel is about to finish school and discover if Drill music and YouTube fame can deliver on their promises. Princess is battling to escape her claustrophobic surroundings and go to university and Dean is ready to come out from under his famous father’s shadow, while Tanya, struggling with the spotlight of internet infamy, is still posting her dream life for all of her faithful followers.

Isolated and disorientated by the white noise and seemingly insurmountable expectations of adolescence, our protagonists are desperate to find anything that helps them belong. Oblivious to one another’s presence, potential and struggles, they pass each other on the street as strangers. But when their paths cross, the connections they make will change the course of their lives.

Twenty-first century life – hyper-sexualized, social media saturated, anxiety-plagued – is here. Living inside its characters’ heads, and negotiating their interior landscape, this book is a love song to the possibilities of youth.

Chosen as a Best Book of the Year by RTÉ, Newstalk, Sunday Independent and The Irish Times

‘You feel the language of Youth in your very pulse.’ MELATU UCHE OKORIE

‘Curran animates the precise, minute-to-minute oscillation between triumph and catastrophe that is adolescence. All the embarrassments, missteps, bluffs, and vulnerabilities of youth are here. And all the yearning too. He captures the voices of a diverse young Ireland, harried by racism, exploitation, and lack of opportunity, battling with itself for itself. His great skill is to carry us along so completely and so confidently, and his affection for his characters is infectious. I’m hoping against hope that these kids will be alright. It could go either way.’ KEITH RIDGWAY

‘Vibrant and immersive – it captures brilliantly the fragile confidence that lies at the heart of youth culture.’ RÓNÁN HESSION

‘Youth is a tour de force. A vital novel that embraces the tender vulnerability and brutality of adolescence. Curran vividly captures the lives of Irish young people trying to figure out who they are and what they want with evocative and edgy prose. Stunning. A must read.’ OLIVIA FITZSIMONS

‘The obvious comparison is with Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown novels, yet the style of Youth reminded me more of reading Irvine Welsh for the first time 30 years ago, and giving myself up to its language and rhythms, ready to go wherever it was taking me.’ IRISH TIMES

‘You cannot teach where I teach, and be in my classroom and not feel uplifted, or have hope for the future.’ Read an interview with Kevin Curran in the Irish Times here

‘An unmissable Irish read.’ RTÉ CULTURE

‘Here is Youth, full of verve and courage and totally credible. Not a false note from start to finish. I just loved it and simply couldn’t put it down.’ CHRISTINE DWYER HICKEY

‘Here’s a rasping book, full of the kick and verve of the inner city. Loved the dialogue, the vernacular of working-class Dublin and all the minor and major concerns of youth. It’s easy to forget what it is to be young when looked at from the other end of life but Kevin made me remember the fine line between triumph and disaster with his great writing and love for his characters. Great book.’ KIT DE WAAL

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS WORK
‘Kevin Curran’s twenty-first century … is a thrilling dispatch from life lived amid the ruins of idealism.’ ROB DOYLE

‘Kevin Curran … [writes] with confidence and brio.’ COLIN BARRETT

‘“The isolation of whole communities can be glimpsed through stories of marginalised individuals.” Kevin Curran exemplifies this idea.’ SALLY ROONEY

‘A writer of real perception and sensitivity.’ IRISH INDEPENDENT

‘Razor-sharp contemporary cultural commentary.’ HOT PRESS

Details

ISBN: 9781843518709

Extent: 289

Published:

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Praise and Reviews

  • ‘A vivid and memorable portrait of a new emerging city from a gifted and committed writer.’ KEVIN BARRY

  • ‘Chilling, but invigorating … so loudly and vulnerably alive … “The Brig” or “the Briggz”, “story” or “wagwan”, “our” or “fam”? The answer, being worked out on Balbriggan’s Mainstreet, is: both. Irish-English has always been wild. Kevin Curran’s Youth, at its liveliest, seems to be telling us that we’re only starting.’ RODDY DOYLE, IRISH TIMES

  • ‘Cocky, funny, complex, vulnerable – the kids in Youth deserve to be treated with seriousness, compassion and focus. And that is exactly what Curran does with such energy and confidence in this vibrant, important novel.’ WENDY ERSKINE

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About the Author

Kevin Curran is from Balbriggan and has been a secondary-school teacher in his hometown for over a decade. His fiction largely concentrates on working class life in the Dublin suburbs. His first novel, Beatsploitation, was published in 2013 and brought him national attention due to his depiction of Ireland’s new multicultural landscape. His second novel, Citizens, was published to critical acclaim in 2016, and he has published numerous short stories in major anthologies and literary journals such as The Stinging Fly. He has also written non-fiction for The Guardian and The Observer.

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