Product Description

Ireland, 1971, John Egan is a misfit, 'a twelve year old in the body of a grown man with the voice of a giant who insists on the ridiculous truth'. With an obsession for the Guinness Book of Records and faith in his ability to detect when adults are lying, John remains hopeful despite the unfortunate cards life deals him. During one year in John's life, from his voice breaking, through the breaking-up of his home life, to the near collapse of his sanity, we witness the gradual unsticking of John's mind, and the trouble that creates for him and his family.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56351 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
"'This is fiction writing of the highest order... John Egan is a brave, resourceful boy, intelligent and self-aware, yet skating on the edge of madness. The story of John's thirteenth year is both sympathetic and disturbing. It is also rich in understated humour' JM Coetzee "(Hyland) brings the long-forgotten teenage sensation of drowning in life's uncomprehended complexities horribly alive." The Times "Hyland nails the alternation excitement and embarrassment of being a teenager... a talented writer." New York Times "Lou is a heartbreaking and compelling creation, and Hyland beautifully captures the self-dramatising yet meek voice of a 16-year-old girl." Observer"

About the Author
Prize-winning novelist M J Hyland was awarded the Hawthornden Prize and the Encore prize for her second novel Carry Me Down, and has been appointed to the Centre for New Writing at University of Manchester as a Lecturer in Creative Writing. Carry Me Down, which charts a year in the profoundly troubled family life of twelve-year-old John Egan in early 1970s Ireland, was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Her work has been acclaimed by the likes of Ali Smith, Hilary Mantel and J M Coetzee, who commented, 'This is fiction writing of the highest order.'

Customer Reviews

Gentle (ish) Giant
I have had this book on my shelf for a while, and picked it up this week for the first time. I finished it in 2 days on a return very long train journey.

It is a story of a boy, that thinks he has a gift and his frustration when people doubt it. He is no 'ordinary' boy for sure, but that is more to do with his appearance.

It is also a story of relationships, between the boy and his parents, and their own relationship and issues, and I enjoyed the realistic picture the author paints of a young boy trying to understand the complicated lives of adults.

A good read, and an easy read. I have read it for what it is, a book on my shelf that needed reading, and I am glad I did, and I ignored the hype of it being shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

I would certainly recommend Carry Me Down.

Dreadful
I bought this book after reading many great reviews.
Some of the content of the first few chapters made me feel ill, and after that the book went from horrible to boring.
There are very few books that I won't read right to the end (and I read 2-3 books a week) but there was no way I could finish this book.
I wouldn't recommend it at all !

Carry me off
I simply cannot understand the acclaim for this work. It is a perfectly acceptable and competent novel, no more. What it failed to do was involve me as a reader, I wanted to feel sympathy, anger, upset, anything. Maybe the author wanted the reader to feel as detached as the boy who is the centre of the work; in this case she did succeed in her task. This however does not make the book enjoyable. If the book had been a biography then you could forgive some of the lack of involvement but as a work of fiction you cannot.