The International - Glenn Patterson

This book recounts the events of a single day in The International Hotel in Belfast in January 1967. The inaugural meeting of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association will take place the next day, setting in motion the events that will lead to the beginning of the Troubles. But for now Belfast is a small provincial city teetering on the edge of chaos. 18-year-old Danny, one of the barmen in the hotel, has his own problems. He has been expelled after shockingly kissing a boy at a school disco and is confused about his sexuality. Through his sometimes baffled but always perceptive eyes, we see the events of the evening. A conman finds that he is the one conned; Danny is attracted to both the oddball Stanley and the mysterious Ingrid; a star footballer gets progressively drunker and is offered a sponsorship deal with a butter company; Danny bickers with the other barmen and has a run-in with his boss. This is a novel of characters and characters' stories, an affectionate, highly populated portrait of a specific time and place loaded with significance.;Patterson builds a narrative of immense poignancy and humour, informed by future events of which the denizens of the International are ignorant but we are only too aware.