From the author of Shadowplay, shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize, The Costa Novel Prize and Novel of the Year winner at the An Post Irish Book Awards.

All alone, with only his electric guitar and his overactive ego for company, Eddie Virago, proud owner of the last mohican haircut in Dublin, leaves his home town to find fame in the wild world of the London rock scene. Things don't quite go as planned, however, and he finds himself living in a ramshackle hotel with a neurotic girl he met on the ferry over while a bewildering array of acid-house ravers, saloon-bar revolutionaries, music biz wideboys and media primadonnas all seem oh-so-anxious to help Eddie on his way...

Caustic and entertaining ? Sunday Times

Sharply observed and always entertaining ? Independent

This is an impressive debut: a good story, well told, great characters, with sardonic, knowing digs at the youthful pretention...clever, wry and often hilarious ? Time Out

Well-written, tremendously confident ? Irish Independent

Characters that leap out at you like figures in a pop-up book. Joseph O'Connor's first novel suggests he is bound for fame ? Observer