Love and sleep - Sean O'Reilly

Sean O'Reilly's debut novel is a journey into the dark pysche of Niall, a young man on the run from the past and denying himself a future. Arriving in Derry, years after he left for a wandering life - from city to city in Europe, from woman to woman - Niall finds that little has changed. The streets are still blighted by sectarian violence and the pubs in the city still cater for the lost and lonely in this grey and unforgiving world. Just as his memories, fears or desires threaten to consume him, Niall enters into a dangerous relationship with Lorna, a committed socialist with a dark side of her own. Haunted by a past that only gradually gives up its secrets and insensate through a cocktail of booze and drugs, Niall lives his life to extremes, testing the limits of those around him and pushing himself ever closer to destruction. Love and Sleep confirms O'Reilly's reputation as a writer of rare lyrical power and urgency.