A massive thank you to everyone who joined us for the Dublin and Galway launches of Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones! Wow, this novel is off to a flying start.
We’re delighted with Ian Sansom’s rave review for the novel in the Guardian, saying ‘The book deserves attention and applause.’ He also calls it ‘exceptional indeed: an extraordinary novel’. Read the whole thing here.
In the Literary Review, David Collard calls it ‘a profound metaphysical exploration of life itself […] Hauntingly sad, but also frequently very funny – Proust reconfigured by Flann O’Brien’; ‘full of wit and extremely engaging’; and ‘a rich, deeply layered and hugely rewarding read’. This is high praise from the critic credited with first spotting Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-formed Thing.
Mike spoke to RTE’s Arena about the book on 12 May 2016. You can access the podcast through iTunes here, or by searching through your preferred podcast platform. Mike also spoke to the Galway Advertiser‘s Kernan Andrews over here.
This Book Munch review is the closest someone has come to articulating how we felt when we first read the manuscript: ‘We could quote from Solar Bones for pages and pages; the ending left us dazed and it was a struggle not to immediately reread it. An immensely powerful book that blends the sublime and the everyday in a way that, if it doesn’t make you rethink the whole engineering profession, will definitely make you want to cheer McCormack onto this year’s prize lists. One of our top reads of the year so far.’
There’ll be a couple of opportunities to hear Mike read from the book or to get it signed over of the summer. Next up will be Dalkey Book Festival, 18 June, 11am, then Cork Midsummer Festival on 25 June, and Hay Festival at Kells, Sunday 26 June 2016, 4.30pm. Mike will also read at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year! He’s been paired up with Alex Pheby (author of Playthings, published by the brilliant Galley Beggar Press. Buy it here) for a panel aptly titled ‘Outstanding Fiction’ on Fri 19 Aug 5:00pm. Tickets go on sale at 8:30am on Tuesday 21 June – keep an eye out here for more.
You can pick up a copy here, or in your local bookshop.