At Swim, Two Boys: A Novel (Award-Winning Fiction) by O'Neil

ISBN: 0743222954

Author: O'Neill, Jamie

Condition: new

Praised as a work of wild, vaulting ambition and achievement by Entertainment Weekly, Jamie ONeills first novel invites comparison to such literary greats as James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Charles Dickens.Jim Mack is a nave young scholar and the son of a foolish, aspiring shopkeeper. Doyler Doyle is the rough-diamond son-revolutionary and blasphemous-of Mr. Macks old army pal. Out at the Forty Foot, that great jut of rock where gentlemen bathe in the nude, the two boys make a pact: Doyler will teach Jim to swim, and in a year, on Easter of 1916, they will swim to the distant beacon of Muglins Rock and claim that island for themselves. All the while Mr. Mack, who has grand plans for a corner shop empire, remains unaware of the depth of the boys burgeoning friendship and of the changing landscape of a nation.Set during the year preceding the Easter Uprising of 1916-Irelands brave but fractured revolt against British rule-At Swim, Two Boys is a tender, tragic love story and a brilliant depiction of people caught in the tide of history. Powerful and artful, and ten years in the writing, it is a masterwork from Jamie ONeill.