Sudden Times

by Dermot Healy (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $3.27

  Ollie is back home in Sligo, but his mind is still in London. He is keeping life simple, dealing with trolleys in the supermarket, dosing with some art students, treading quietly on the stairs, watching himself. But close his eyes and he's back in the city with his pal Marty, queuing for jobs on building sites and drinking in The Lag. At night the terror closes in: the gangsters, the protection rackets, Scots Bob and Silver John, his brother Redmond. Finally, he realizes that he must go back and face his ghosts.

• Used

  Paperback
  1999

  $3.27

  Ollie Ewing is barely surviving. Back home in Sligo, he's collecting trolleys in a supermarket car park and living in a run-down house with a group of art students. He has lost his child-like innocence and he can't escape what has happened in London. Tormented by old fears and regrets, he loses himself in everyday routine and is kept going by his painfully black sense of humour. Finally, Ollie steels himself to return to England to confront his demons. He re-enters a world of casual labour and protection rackets on the building sites of London; a world peopled by sinister figures such as Silver John and Scots Bob; an intimidating world of uncertain justice where violence will easily erupt. Sudden Times is a powerful and shocking psychological thriller, revealing its truth through a growing awareness of the skewed and unreliable consciousness of its narrator. The result is a masterpiece of sustained tension.