Sequel to the bestselling Butcher Boy, Francie Brady is back! Francie Brady, the broken Butcher Boy, leads a busy life in Fizzbag Mansions, where he was incarcerated five decades ago after the mistake with Mrs Nugent. Still obsessed with the comic books of his childhood, he has found a new vocation - as a publisher of his very own magazine, The Big Yaroo, and Francie throws himself into its production, working to a deadline in more ways than one. Along the way, he remembers Da, Uncle Alo, Joe Purcell and his beloved Ma, and wrestles a desire to escape his past with the world's need for him to exorcise his childhood demons. As Francie is drawn even further into the dark world of his own mind, the line between reality and delusion ceases to mean anything. Uproariously funny, terrifying and profound, this is the swansong of one Irish literature's most enduring characters.
Francie Brady, the broken Butcher Boy, leads a busy life in Fizzbag Mansions, where he has been incarcerated since Mrs Nugent met her unfortunate end. Still obsessed with the comic books and fantasy world of his childhood, he has found a new métier - as a publisher of his very own magazine, The Big Yaroo.
As Francie throws himself into its production, he is revisited by characters from his past including Uncle Alo, Joe Purcell and of course his beloved mother. Caught between a desire to escape his past and a need to exorcise his terrible childhood demons, Francie struggles to build his fledgling career, but is increasingly drawn into the dark underworld of his own mind.
This profoundly moving sequel to McCabe's bestselling The Butcher Boy asks some uncomfortable questions about redemption, religion and the hidden world of small-town Ireland. Written in McCabe's trademark fluid, stream-of-consciousness style, the novel explores the limits of psychological stability and the arbitrary delineation between reality and delusion.
