Afterlife - Sean O'Brien

Martin and Alex meet at university and -- although Martin can never quite work out why -- become friends. When they finish their undergraduate studies, and with the summer ahead of them before they have to think about the future, they and their respective girlfriends -- Susie and Jane -- rent a house in the middle of nowhere. While Jane writes and Susie finds a job at the local art college, the two boys spend their days doing little other than sleeping, drinking, smoking and trying to keep cool in scorching temperatures. As the heat builds, however so does the tension between the four; then, when a glamorous, hedonistic American student arrives in their midst, events and emotions escalate still further.

A novel about power, rivalry, jealousy and -- in the end -- murder, Afterlife is a gripping exploration of how some outcomes are decided long before we're even aware of the options.

'Compelling and hypnotic' Helen Dunmore

'A convincing, darkly comic and painful take on the astonishingly poisonous world of poetry and literary aspiration' Andrew Greig