{"title":"Books by Oisin McKenna","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780008604219","title":"Evenings and Weekends","description":"'I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN' SHON FAYE          'A MASTERPIECE. THIS SEARING TALE OF LOVE, SEX AND CLASS WILL RESONATE FOR GENERATIONS TO COME' OWEN JONES          'I WAS DEEPLY MOVED BY ITS BEAUTY AND HUMANITY' COCO MELLORS          'Electric and intimate' Guardian          'Impossibly, ineffably beautiful’ Russell T Davies          'Intoxicating' Irish Times          London, June 2019. Maggie is 30, pregnant and broke. Faced with moving back to the home town she fought to escape, she’s wondering if having a baby with boyfriend Ed will be the last spontaneous act of her life. Ed, meanwhile, is harbouring secret dreams of his own.             Phil hates his office job and is living for the weekend, while falling for his housemate, Keith. But there’s a problem: Keith already has a boyfriend. Then there’s Rosaleen, Phil’s mother, who’s tired of feeling like a side character in her own life. She’s just been diagnosed with cancer and is travelling to London to tell Phil, if she can ever get hold of him.                         As Saturday night approaches in a city on the brink of political upheaval, all their lives are set to change forever. It’s the hottest summer on record, and the weekend is about to begin.                                   What readers are saying…                    'I’ve had a week long book hangover. Read it!'          'A book I will carry with me in my heart'          'The best book I've read in recent years'          'My life got just a bit richer from having read this book'          'I absolutely loved it, every word'","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55206331023733,"sku":"9780008604219","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008604219_c3968544-5986-4b7e-a3a8-bfe7d5efc93c.jpg?v=1785658546"},{"product_id":"9780008608941","title":"Happy Life","description":"\u003cp\u003eTHE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED NEW NOVEL FROM THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF EVENINGS AND WEEKENDS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'This makes no sense, he thought. Look at your wonderful life...'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHackney, August 2023. Tommy skives off work early. He's hungry for a little more pleasure before summer is over. It's a beautiful day, he's surrounded by friends, and adored by his boyfriend, but as the day hurries on, his life's happiness becomes harder to grasp.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThirty years earlier, Tommy lived as a child on these same streets with his father, Maxy, and his mother, Grainne, a nurse from County Roscommon who lost her own father at seven in circumstances no one wants to talk about. Grainne is funny, and kind, but her feelings are big and unwieldy. She loves her little family, so why does she want to run away from it?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen the community gather for one final night at a beloved local bar closing its doors for good, the loves of Tommy's life wait for his arrival. But as the party escalates, Tommy still hasn't arrived. A story which sprawls across three generations, moving from the East End of London to the West of Ireland, from queer bars and saunas, to bomb shelters during the Blitz, Happy Life is a profound and moving portrait of people who love being alive, and can't go on living.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":56367682814325,"sku":"9780008608941","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57682633851253,"sku":"9780008608934","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008608941.jpg?v=1792511579"},{"product_id":"happy-life-1","title":"Happy Life","description":"\u003cp\u003eTHE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED NEW NOVEL FROM THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF EVENINGS AND WEEKENDS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This makes no sense, he thought. Look at your wonderful life…'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHackney, August 2023. Tommy skives off work early. He’s hungry for a little more pleasure before summer is over. It’s a beautiful day, he’s surrounded by friends, and adored by his boyfriend, but as the day hurries on, his life’s happiness becomes harder to grasp.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThirty years earlier, Tommy lived as a child on these same streets with his father, Maxy, and his mother, Gráinne, a nurse from County Roscommon who lost her own father at seven in circumstances no one wants to talk about. Gráinne is funny, and kind, but her feelings are big and unwieldy. She loves her little family, so why does she want to run away from it?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen the community gather for one final night at a beloved local bar closing its doors for good, the loves of Tommy’s life wait for his arrival. But as the party escalates, Tommy still hasn’t arrived. A story which sprawls across three generations, moving from the East End of London to the West of Ireland, from queer bars and saunas, to bomb shelters during the Blitz, Happy Life is a profound and moving portrait of people who love being alive, and can’t go on living.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57680026141045,"sku":"9780008873202","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008873202.jpg?v=1792422927"},{"product_id":"happy-life-2","title":"Happy Life","description":"\u003cp\u003eTHE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED NEW NOVEL FROM THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF EVENINGS AND WEEKENDS\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This makes no sense, he thought. Look at your wonderful life…'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHackney, August 2023. Tommy skives off work early. He’s hungry for a little more pleasure before summer is over. It’s a beautiful day, he’s surrounded by friends, and adored by his boyfriend, but as the day hurries on, his life’s happiness becomes harder to grasp.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThirty years earlier, Tommy lived as a child on these same streets with his father, Maxy, and his mother, Gráinne, a nurse from County Roscommon who lost her own father at seven in circumstances no one wants to talk about. Gráinne is funny, and kind, but her feelings are big and unwieldy. She loves her little family, so why does she want to run away from it?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen the community gather for one final night at a beloved local bar closing its doors for good, the loves of Tommy’s life wait for his arrival. But as the party escalates, Tommy still hasn’t arrived. A story which sprawls across three generations, moving from the East End of London to the West of Ireland, from queer bars and saunas, to bomb shelters during the Blitz, Happy Life is a profound and moving portrait of people who love being alive, and can’t go on living.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57680027189621,"sku":"9780008874049","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008874049.jpg?v=1792422930"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-oisin-mckenna.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}