And, finally, how all that survives now of those sex-and-drug-soaked times are Una’s unspooling memories as she sits outside in the Margate sunshine, and Dan himself, whose role in the story becomes stranger and more sinister.

Poguemahone is a wild, free-verse monologue, steeped in music and folklore, crammed with characters, both real and imagined, on a scale Patrick McCabe has never attempted before.

A huge, shape-shifting epic from one of modern Ireland's greatest writers

‘If you’re looking for this century’s Ulysses, look no further … a stunningly lyrical novel’

Alex Preston, Observer

‘Pitched – deliriously – between high modernism and folk magic, between gorgeous free-verse and hilarious Irish vernacular, Poguemahone is a stunning achievement … profoundly affecting’

David Keenan

‘A tremendous pitch-black multi-layered epic. This exhilarating ride of madness, hauntings, lost weekends and fractured memory is… one of the most original literary works in recent times. I bloody loved it’ 

Adelle Stripe

'Modernist and eager to push the boundaries of his own art and the art form of the novel, here is a novelist and novel to celebrate in all their ribald, audacious, outrageous, and compelling brilliance'

Paul Perry, Irish Sunday Independent