Heart Of The Old Country - Tapa blanda

Tim McLoughlin writes about South Brooklyn with a fidelity to people and place reminiscent of James T Farrell's Studs Lonigan and George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London. Among the achievements of this swiftly paced narrative is a cast of frequently complex characters whose voices reflect dreams and love as well as desperation to survive . . . Mr McLoughlin is a young writer with a rare gift for realism and empathy -- Sidney Offit, author of Memoir of a Bookie's Son Heart of the Old Country is a wise and tender first novel . . . McLoughlin shows a love for humanity so deep it might equal Dostoevsky's. He is a master storyteller in the tradition of such great New York City writers as Hubert Selby Jr and Richard Price. I can't wait for his second book. -- Kaylie Jones, author of A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries

Nineteen-year-old Mike is at loose ends: should he stay in college, marry his shopaholic girlfriend, work full-time or do what most of his peers have done - drift into the omni-present arena of local organised crime? Unable or unwilling to decide, he coasts along until he is forced to confront the grim realities of street justice and his own culpability in its execution. Torn as to which way to go, Mike's stuck in a situation and an upbringing that means he has to either follow the traditional neighbourhood route and forego any personal ambitions he has, or make a stand and turn against the life that he knows. And being a teenager, he's no good at making choices. But confronted by the grim and violent realities of mob life, Mike is forced into choosing whether to follow in the footsteps of his father or find his own path. McLoughlin perfectly captures the state of mind of a man caught at the crossroads between youth and adulthood.