The Brothers' Lot

"Kevin Holohan's strange yet disconcertingly recognizable world has echoes of Flann O'Brien's and Monty Python's, but there is rage as well as absurdist comedy. The Brothers' Lot is a memorable, skillfully wrought, and evocative satire of an Ireland that has collapsed under the weight of its contradictions." --Joseph O'Connor, author of Star of the Sea"Kevin Holohan takes us to a harrowing place. This vivid book aims to break your heart while it makes you catch your breath. It is powerful and is not afraid of the dark."--Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Devil's Highway"Kevin Holohan's wickedly funny debut novel, set in a rundown Dublin religious school where the spirits are low but the Gaelic pride runs high, will make you laugh almost as much as it makes you weep, for beyond their almost comical incompetence and a thin veneer of piety the Brothers who run the place are sad, flawed men, whose weaknesses range from sadism to depravity. They educate by cudgel and dole out discipline with a leather strap, while protagonist Finbar Sullivan and the other long-suffering students bear it all with the kind of wise-cracking cynicism, irreverence, and pranks that one would expect at that age." --Preston L. Allen, author of Jesus Boy"The Brothers' Lot is a screamingly funny indictment of the culture of repression and abuse that has plagued Ireland for generations, but it is much more than that. It is a brilliantly told tale, compassionate and brutal. Most important, it celebrates the spirit of reckless bravery and rebellion, the spirit that draws back the curtain on iconic institutions to reveal the frailty of an ecclesiastical house of cards."--Tim McLoughlin, author of Heart of the Old Country