A Mad and Wonderful Thing - Tapa blanda

'Beneath the passion, wit, and poetry of A Mad and Wonderful Thing is an undertow of tragedy. This is a world where our moral certainties are challenged, where gentle domesticity and sudden violence disrupt our expectations.'

'[R]omance is the mad and wonderful thing that gives the novel its name, but it's not the emotion that drives the plot ... Mulhlland's prose has all the elan of fine conversation after a couple of pints ... the final act is marvellous'

'A fascinating and profound book -- a story of love and brutality and tenderness and death ... A book which stays.'

'An emotional, shocking, gorgeous read, rooted in such painful reality ... a magnetic and lyrical read.'

'Excellent. Deeply satisfying and moving ... Ireland has a new and exciting voice.'

'A great read ... it deserves to do well.'

'Johnny Donnelly is a romantic and a rhetorician ... it's easy to be swept along ... Mulholland has Roddy Doyle's gift for vernacular ... you'll be there with him to the bitter end.'

'[A] terrific first novel ... Mulholland has pulled off that most difficult of literary quinellas: a serious story, entertainingly told.'

'This markedly ambitious first novel is one to reckon with.'

'The real central character in this book is Ireland. Mulholland apparently effortlessly conjures up the country through its history, myths and legends, its landscape and The Troubles of the 1990s, during which the novel is set ... Evocative and lyrically written.'

‘You wouldn’t get involved, Johnny, would you? What about those terrible bombs? You wouldn’t do a bad thing, would you?’

In this passionate and heart-wrenching debut novel by Irish writer Mark Mulholland, we meet Johnny Donnelly — an intense young man who is in love with books, with his country, and with the beautiful Cora Flannery. But in his dark and secret other life he shoots British soldiers: he is an IRA sniper.

How can this be? As his two worlds inevitably move towards a dramatic collision, Johnny takes us on a journey through the history, legends, and landscapes of his beloved Ireland. In the end, Johnny has to make sense of his inheritance and his life, and he does so in a riveting, redemptive, and unforgettable climax.

Told in Johnny’s unique voice, and peopled by a cast of extraordinary characters, A Mad and Wonderful Thing tells its tale lightly, but pulls a heavy load. It takes us beyond the charming, familiar, and often funny experiences of everyday life to the forces that bind people together, and that set them against each other — and to the profound consequences of the choices that they make.