LOW FLAT RATE $9.90 AUST-WIDE DELIVERY
Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of five previous novels, The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and The Woman Who Walked into Doors. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.
Henry Smart is exceptional. Born in a Dublin slum in 1901, he is the healthiest baby anyone there has ever seen. His father, a one-legged brothel bouncer and hitman for the shadowy Alfie Gandon, disappears while Henry is still an infant; his teenage mother goes slowly mad. At age five, Henry is fending for himself; at 14, and measuring over six foot, he is the youngest combatant in the 1916 Easter Rising. By the novel's end, he has played a starring role in Ireland's wars of independence. He is 20 and disillusioned with revolution. Part mystery, part love story, part historical intervention, A Star Called Henry adds new dimensions to Doyle's trademark wit and narrative drive. Much attention will focus on his less-than-reverent treatment of the myths of Irish republicanism, but more surprising (though perhaps not unconnected) is the novels's creation of an old-fashioned action hero, one who gets the girl and all the best lines besides. If you like a man who claims 'I'd never paid for a ride before in my life', you'll love Henry Smart. (Kirkus UK)
