“This is Dickens in the present tense, Dickens for the twenty-first century.”—Roddy Doyle, The New York Times Book Review An Irishman in nineteenth-centur

Includes a "Reading group guide" ([12] p.).

One of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year National Bestseller Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize Winner of the RSL Encore Award Finalis

In this "briskly entertaining" (New York Times Book Review), "transporting and wholly original" (People Magazine) novel, one man banishes himself to a solitary

______________ 'Hugely entertaining' - The Times 'A wincingly entertaining portrayal of academe with its pants down. And a reminder that when things are at thei