At first glance, half-wit and fully wild Ianto seems an unlikely
candidate for greatness. He sleeps rough, he steals, he takes
handfuls of drugs and spends most of his dole money on cider and
raves. He's barely capable of stringing a complete sentence
together and is unable to grasp even the basics of personal
hygiene. In short, Ianto is a dole-scrounging waster with no
discernible future. But when he's cast off his grandmother's land
and out of his ancestral home, the only legacy he had to call his
own, the horrifying past he's never been able or even allowed to
cope with seeps into the present. In a swirl of psychotropic drugs
and deep, instinctual urges, Ianto makes his fame among his
parasitic circle of friends and the quiet, unassuming village he
lives on the fringes of. This book is coursing with gritty emotion
and the violent climax leaves nothing to the imagination. Yet there
is a grim beauty and depth in this harsh Welsh landscape, profound
thoughts in the expletive-laden conversations and terrible insights
into the nature of humanity itself. This is a novel that demands to
be analysed and re-read, as knowledge of Ianto's dark secret lends
an additional intensity to the book and highlights the subtle hints
and clues scattered throughout. Some may find the dialect
difficult, which is why it may benefit from more than one reading -
but, as with Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, the reader comes around
to the language of Ianto's world. As you become used to the
dialect, the cursing not only seems essential, but melts into the
background until you hardly notice it. Don't read this book
expecting a few hours of light entertainment. This is a deeply
disturbing, highly intense and stunningly talented piece of work
that will resonate for a long while afterward. Niall Griffiths is a
talent to watch and wait for. (Kirkus UK)
Robbed of his ancestral home - a near-derelict hovel in the mountains of west Wales - Ianto pledges revenge not only on the English yuppies who have turned his grandmother's cottage into a weekenders' barbecue party but on all those who have violated him and the land that is his. This latest act of colonial oppression and desecration triggers his lurid and strange imagination into unspeakable savagery - embodying our most primal fears of physical threat, a world beyond our control.
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