Jay adores his small daughter, Bonnie, and nothing matters more to him than being a good father. But Bonnie's traumatic birth puts an unbearable strain on his marriage with Shauna and the couple eventually separate. Despite this, London is the place to be: New Labour is in power and the city is buzzing with optimism. Jay is slowly putting his life back together, snagging a job on a TV documentary about the Millennium Dome and, crucially, spending time with his beloved three-year-old daughter, Bonnie. Indeed, things might have even begun to look up. Until, that is, the arrival of The Clappers. Six foot tall, all muscle and plenty of heart, she insists on making the world right for Jay. But, inevitably, she makes it wrong...

'A joy to read: fresh, funny, moving and always surprising' Kate Atkinson 'Fresh, beguiling and laugh-out-loud funny on every page, this must be the most enjoyable Irish novel since Skippy Dies' Guardian They'd sit around in a steamy kitchen circle like four mad witches, and dip ginger-snaps into Maxwell House until they went wobbly-warm, and take turns at saying, Jahear about so-and-so, Lord rest his soul, only thirty years old, poor creature?! They were brilliant at it. Scaring the shite out of each other, grinning inside. Jim Finnegan is thirteen years old and life in his world consists of dealing with the helter-skelter intensity of his rumbustious family, taking breakneck bike rides with his best friend, and coveting the local girls from afar - until one day when everything changes. The Fields is an unforgettable story of an extraordinary character: Jim's voice leaps off the page and straight into the reader's heart as he grapples with his unfairly interrupted adolescence. Praise for The Fields: 'Heartbreaking and hilarious in equal measures' Stylist Funny and heart-warming' Daily Mail 'The Fields is crazy mad, lyrical and unforgettable' Red 'Exquisite moments of comedy that anyone with a whiff of Irish heritage will immediately recognise' Sunday Express

Kate Atkinson welcomes a first novel that's "a joy to read: fresh, funny, and always unexpected."
It's the first summer of lust for 14-year-old Jim Finnegan, a boy trying to become a man in 1980s Dublin. Jim's days are spent navigating his boisterous family, taking breakneck bike rides with his best friend, dancing to Foreigner on his boombox, and quietly coveting the local girls from afar.
Jim's teenage dreams come true when he wins the attention of a beautiful older girl-but he also becomes the target of a devious religious figure in the community. When Jim and his girlfriend take a clandestine trip by ferry to London, the dark and difficult repercussions of their journey force Jim to look for the solution to all his problems in some very unusual places.
THE FIELDS is an unforgettable portrait of a boy who sinks into troubles as he grows into a man, and the loving but fractured family that might be his downfall--or his salvation.