Product Description

Everything goes wrong from the start. The money's been stolen from the remote North Wales post office, but Darren's been over-enthusiastic with the lump hammer. The elderly sub-postmistress lies in a coma. When he and Alastair get back to Liverpool, and try and spend the cash on a consignment of pure cocaine - and in doing so get involved with some seriously dangerous criminals - things really get out of hand, and stay that way until the story finally crashes to its grisly conclusion. Epic in its scope and its cast of characters, ambitious in linguistic and narrative range, "Wreckage" is Niall Griffiths' most confident, audacious novel yet. An examination of violence and the humanity it destroys, this is a book of furious pace and pacific calm that allows the reader to see both sympathy and terror in a world where everything that can possibly go wrong, does.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #580366 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Sam Leith, Telegraph
"It is arresting, and it is terrifying, and it is thoroughly accomplished."

James Urquhart, Saturday Telegraph, 8 April 06
Pacey and effective…packs plenty of punch.

James Urquhart – Telegraph
‘pacey and effective…packs plenty of punch’.

Customer Reviews

Fifth novel from one of Britain's most underrated writers
Niall Griffiths is one of those writers that makes my fingers tremble with excitement when I pick up one of his books. Wreckage picks up where previous novel Stump left off: Darren and Alastair, two tracksuited malcontents from Liverpool, have just robbed a post office in Cilcain, North Wales. Strangers to wealth of any kind, they quickly return to their hometown with a rucksack stuffed with cash, but all is not well... Alastair, loath though he is to admit it to the unpredictable and extremely dangerous Darren, is overcome with disgust at the nature of their crime and quietly plots his revenge. Unfortunately, Alastair lacks the foresight to ensure the smooth execution of his plan, and from there on things go from bad to worse for the pair of hapless Scousers.

Wreckage is a powerful, poetic and gripping piece of writing about the devastation and damage that violence causes at all levels. It portrays those responsible for this damage as both pitiless and unflinching; the tragic victims as just that. Stylistically, Griffiths' writing alternates between Irvine Welsh-esque, expletive-ridden dialogue, and character-driven internal monologues that betray the unhinged minds behind such behaviour. There are also lengthy passages of rich, descriptive language detailing the geographical and historical context of the story. Griffiths', a Liverpudlian now living in Wales, displays an astonishing grasp of the language, history and socio-economic background of this particular part of the United Kingdom.

Wreckage may make for bleak reading at times, but this is a culturally significant novel that one cannot help but be moved, amused, and - on occasion - awe-struck by and I would recommend it to all fans of so-called 'transgressive' fiction (see: Irvine Welsh, Chuck Palahniuk et al).

Matt Pucci

Just not interesting enough
I've only read one other book by Niall Griffiths - Runt - which I thought was a great read, reminiscent of Riddley Walker.
This one reads like an also-ran when put up against comparable works by the likes of Irvine Welsh. The main story concerns the hapless exploits of two scouse scallies after a post office robbery in Wales that goes disastrously wrong.
Upon return to Liverpool the respective plots of the two principal characters become enmeshed with those of various others as the novel heads towards a violent climax which, by the time you reach it, the reader is more than glad that the whole sordid affair is finally over. Not because of the nature of the events but because of the way in which they're told. The writing is simplistic at times and at others just plain dull. For example, when the two "gangsters" take a train from Wrexham station they "ascend the stairs to traverse the footbridge to the far platform." That just reads like a police witness statement.
In all, there is just not enough good writing to keep one interested and, despite valiant attempts to develop the various characters with the aid of historical flashbacks etc, ultimately I was glad to see the back of each and every one of them.