The Glorious Heresies: A Novel

About this book

Winner of the 2016 Baileys Womens Prize for Fiction and the Desmond Elliott Prize Shortlisted for Best Newcomer at the Irish Book Awards Longlisted for the 2016 International Dylan Thomas Prize The Irish Times March Book of the Month From Lisa McInerney hailed by The Irish Times as arguably the most talented writer at work in Ireland today comes The Glorious Heresies a searing debut novel about life on the fringes of Irelands post-crash society. When grandmother Maureen Phelan is surprised in her home by a stranger she clubs the intruder with a Holy Stone. The consequences of this unplanned murder connect four misfits struggling against their meager circumstances. Ryan is a fifteen-year-old drug dealer desperate not to turn out like his alcoholic father Tony whose feud with his next-door neighbor threatens to ruin his family. Georgie is a sex worker who half-heartedly joins a born-again movement to escape her profession and drug habit. And Jimmy Phelan the most fearsome gangster in the city and Maureens estranged son finds that his mothers bizarre attempts at redemption threaten his entire organization. Biting and darkly funny The Glorious Heresies presents an unforgettable vision of a city plagued by poverty and exploitation where salvation still awaits in the most unexpected places. New York Times Book Reviews "10 Best Crime Novels" of the year