Jamie ONeill Knihy

~ The Irish contemporary classic in a beautiful new edition ~ 'Weren't you never out for an easy dip?' he asked . . . 'I don't mean the baths, I mean with a pal. For a lark like.' Out at the Forty Foot, that great jut of Dublin rock where gentlemen bathe in the scandalous nude, two boys meet day after day. There they make a pact: that Doyler will teach Jim to swim, and in a year, they will swim the bay to the distant beacon of the Muglins rock, to raise the Green and claim it for themselves. As a turbulent year drives inexorably towards the Easter Rising of 1916 and Ireland sets forth on a path to uncertain glory, a tender, secret love story unfolds. Written with verve and mastery in a modern Irish tradition descended from James Joyce and Flann O'Brien, At Swim, Two Boys is a shimmering novel of unforgettable ambition, intensity and humanity. 'One of the greatest Irish novels ever written' David Marcus 'The music of Jamie O'Neill's prose creates a new Irish symphony' Peter Ackroyd 'Heartachingly beautiful' Independent on Sunday 'A vivid picture of human freedom' Sunday Times

A cast of rampant miscreants, brilliantly witty dialogue, and dark imaginings make for compulsive comic reading in "Kilbrack," written more than a decade before "At Swim, Two Boys" established O'Neill as "one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Irish fiction" ("The Observer").

Twee zestienjarige jongens sluiten een bondgenootschap: de robuuste Doyler Doyle zal de timide Jim Mack inwijden in de zwemkunst en samen zullen ze over een jaar met Pasen naar een eilandje in de baai van Dublin zwemmen. Ze zullen het eilandje voor Ierland innemen door er een groene vlag te planten. Dit stoutmoedige avontuur bezegelt tevens hun intieme relatie.