Jamie O'Neill est un auteur irlandais dont l'œuvre se caractérise par une profonde compréhension de la psyché humaine et de la complexité des relations. Son écriture est souvent comparée aux classiques de la littérature irlandaise, tout en conservant un style unique et captivant. La fiction d'O'Neill explore les thèmes de l'identité, de l'amour et de la perte, créant des personnages à la fois complexes et attachants. Ses romans sont célébrés pour leur mérite littéraire et leur capacité à susciter de fortes réactions émotionnelles chez les lecteurs.
A cast of rampant miscreants, brilliantly witty dialogue, and dark imaginings make for compulsive comic reading in "Kilbrack," written more than a decade before "At Swim, Two Boys" established O'Neill as "one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Irish fiction" ("The Observer").
~ The Irish contemporary classic in a beautiful new edition ~ 'Weren't you never out for an easy dip?' he asked . . . 'I don't mean the baths, I mean with a pal. For a lark like.' Out at the Forty Foot, that great jut of Dublin rock where gentlemen bathe in the scandalous nude, two boys meet day after day. There they make a pact: that Doyler will teach Jim to swim, and in a year, they will swim the bay to the distant beacon of the Muglins rock, to raise the Green and claim it for themselves. As a turbulent year drives inexorably towards the Easter Rising of 1916 and Ireland sets forth on a path to uncertain glory, a tender, secret love story unfolds. Written with verve and mastery in a modern Irish tradition descended from James Joyce and Flann O'Brien, At Swim, Two Boys is a shimmering novel of unforgettable ambition, intensity and humanity. 'One of the greatest Irish novels ever written' David Marcus 'The music of Jamie O'Neill's prose creates a new Irish symphony' Peter Ackroyd 'Heartachingly beautiful' Independent on Sunday 'A vivid picture of human freedom' Sunday Times