Abstainer

‘Truly terrific' Richard Ford'Dickens for the twenty-first century' Roddy Doyle'A powerful, gripping tale' Sunday TimesA man hanging on by a thread. A city about to snap.   From the acclaimed author of The North Water comes an epic story of revenge and obsession.  Manchester, 1867  Two men, haunted by their pasts.Driven by the need for justice.  Blood begets blood. In a fight for life and legacy.  Stephen Doyle arrives in Manchester from New York. He is an Irish-American veteran of the Civil War and a member of the Fenians, a secret society intent on ending British rule in Ireland, by any means necessary. Now he has come to seek vengeance.  James O'Connor has fled grief and drink in Dublin for a sober start in Manchester as Head Constable. His mission is to discover and thwart the Fenians’ plans. When his long-lost nephew arrives on his doorstep, he never could have foreseen how this would imperil his fragile new life – or how his and Doyle's fates would come to be intertwined.   The rebels will be hanged at dawn, and their brotherhood is already plotting revenge.  Praise for The North Water, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016   ‘Brilliant, fast-paced, gripping. A tour de force of narrative tension and a masterful reconstruction of a lost world’ Hilary Mantel   ‘Utterly convincing and compelling… A startling achievement’ Martin Amis   ‘Riveting and darkly brilliant… McGuire has an extraordinary talent’ Colm Toibin   ‘Has exceptional power and energy’ Sunday Times   ‘A stunning novel that snares the reader from the outset and keeps the tightest grip until the bitter end’ Financial Times   ‘A vivid read, full of twists, turns, period detail and strong characters’ The Times   ‘Terrific – McGuire’s use of the pitiless, fearsomely beautiful Arctic landscape as a theatre for enduring questions is inspired’ Daily Mail   ‘McGuire has a sure and unwavering touch… a writer of exceptional craft and confidence’ Irish Times  

'Unforgettable... McGuire's portrait of two men locked in a grisly, vengeful dance with each other is masterly'  The Times, ‘The book is written with the vividness and economy of a screenplay, unfolding through a series of sharply observed scenes full of cliffhangers, misdirection and reverses. Its lovely, rhythmic prose evokes the stinks of the Victorian city, its factories, rat-baiting arenas and slaughterhouses. […] McGuire does everything well: evoking the pungent atmosphere of a teeming industrial city, recreating the period in a way that resonates with our own time without seeming preachy, and writing sharp dialogue that crackles with subtext’  Guardian, 'McGuire once again crafts compelling and disturbing fiction, rich with atmosphere and carried firmly by a galloping plot'  New Statesman, 'A powerful, gripping tale'  Sunday Times, 'The blend of politics, personal tragedy and revenge is moreishly compelling. The book’s powerful setting is almost a character in itself... The physical world that [McGuire] imagines assails the reader’s senses: the stink of a tannery, the clangour of factory bells and the way O’Connor’s grief drives him to a ruthlessness beyond his nature'  The Economist

Ian McGuire grew up near Hull and studied at the University of Manchester and the University of Virginia, USA. In 2007 he co-founded the University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing. He is the author of Incredible Bodies and the 2016 Man Booker-longlisted novel, The North Water, for which he won the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award. The Abstainer is his third novel.