From the highly acclaimed author of Bad Day in Blackrock – inspiration for the 2012 award-winning film What Richard Did, directed by Lenny Abrahamson – comes a darkly funny, gripping and profoundly moving novel about a life spinning out of control, a life live without the bedrock of familial love, and the corruption of material wealth that tears at the soul.
‘It was my father’s arrest that brought me here, although you could certainly say that I took the scenic route.’
Here is rehab, where Ben – the only son of a rich South Dublin banker – is piecing together the shattered remains of his life. Abruptly cut off, at the age of 27, from a life of heedless privilege, Ben flounders through a world of drugs and dead-end jobs, his self-esteem at rock bottom. Even his once-adoring girlfriend, Clio, is at the end of her tether. Then Ben runs into an old school friend who wants to cut him in on a scam: a shady property deal in the Balkans. The deal will make Ben rich and, at one fell swoop, will deliver him from all his troubles: his addictions, his father’s very public disgrace, and his own self-loathing and regret. Problems solved.
But something is amiss. For one thing, the Serbian partners don’t exactly look like fools. (In fact they look like gangsters.) And, for another, Ben is being followed everywhere he goes. Someone is being taken for a ride. But who?
Praise for White City:
'I can't recommend it enough' John Boyne
'Immensely enjoyable and tautly written' Sunday Times
'Spiky, blackly funny' Independent
'Both riotous rant and thoughtful coming-of-age tale' Dublin Review of Books
'Brilliantly entertaining' Literary Review
'Likely to be the most solid, well-rounded novel to come out of Ireland this year' Irish Independent
'This ambitious, attention-grabbing novel seems ripe for cinematic adaptation’ Daily Mail
‘Demands to be read’ Irish Times
'Power shows his own capacity for comic timing and pithy aperçus' Guardian
'One of the most purely enjoyable books' Peter Murphy, Arena (RTE Radio 1)
'A tremendously zesty and zeitgeisty piece of writing' Sunday Times (Ireland)
‘Fast-paced and wickedly funny’ Danielle McLaughlin
'Magnificent' Billy O'Callaghan
'Dark, hilarious and emotionally profound' Ed O'Loughlin
'[A] biting page-turner' Business Post
'Funny, and gorgeously written, and just relentlessly entertaining' Mark O'Connell
'You'll laugh, you'll cry... Read it, read it, read it' Claire Hennessy
'Profound, unpretentious, unapologetically intelligent, and really hilarious' Lauren Oyler
'Brilliant' Eoin McNamee
Genre: Literary Fiction
‘It was my father’s arrest that brought me here, although you could certainly say that I took the scenic route.’
Here is rehab, where Ben – the only son of a rich South Dublin banker – is piecing together the shattered remains of his life. Abruptly cut off, at the age of 27, from a life of heedless privilege, Ben flounders through a world of drugs and dead-end jobs, his self-esteem at rock bottom. Even his once-adoring girlfriend, Clio, is at the end of her tether. Then Ben runs into an old school friend who wants to cut him in on a scam: a shady property deal in the Balkans. The deal will make Ben rich and, at one fell swoop, will deliver him from all his troubles: his addictions, his father’s very public disgrace, and his own self-loathing and regret. Problems solved.
But something is amiss. For one thing, the Serbian partners don’t exactly look like fools. (In fact they look like gangsters.) And, for another, Ben is being followed everywhere he goes. Someone is being taken for a ride. But who?
Praise for White City:
'I can't recommend it enough' John Boyne
'Immensely enjoyable and tautly written' Sunday Times
'Spiky, blackly funny' Independent
'Both riotous rant and thoughtful coming-of-age tale' Dublin Review of Books
'Brilliantly entertaining' Literary Review
'Likely to be the most solid, well-rounded novel to come out of Ireland this year' Irish Independent
'This ambitious, attention-grabbing novel seems ripe for cinematic adaptation’ Daily Mail
‘Demands to be read’ Irish Times
'Power shows his own capacity for comic timing and pithy aperçus' Guardian
'One of the most purely enjoyable books' Peter Murphy, Arena (RTE Radio 1)
'A tremendously zesty and zeitgeisty piece of writing' Sunday Times (Ireland)
‘Fast-paced and wickedly funny’ Danielle McLaughlin
'Magnificent' Billy O'Callaghan
'Dark, hilarious and emotionally profound' Ed O'Loughlin
'[A] biting page-turner' Business Post
'Funny, and gorgeously written, and just relentlessly entertaining' Mark O'Connell
'You'll laugh, you'll cry... Read it, read it, read it' Claire Hennessy
'Profound, unpretentious, unapologetically intelligent, and really hilarious' Lauren Oyler
'Brilliant' Eoin McNamee
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"This is part thriller but mostly a look at what it means to grow up... full of ridiculously beautiful, polished, & often scathing sentences. This novel is pleasing on so many levels, both intellectually & emotionally... You'll laugh, you'll cry... Read it, read it, read it." - Claire Hennessy
"A fast-paced and wickedly funny novel. Hugely entertaining. White City grabbed me from the opening pages and didn't let go." - Danielle McLaughlin
"White City is brilliant on the high-octane vacuity of Ireland’s rentier class. Power’s trademark shimmering prose counterpoints a driving narrative... Brilliant." - Eoin McNamee
"With the brilliant Bad Day in Blackrock back in 2008, Kevin Power more than earned his standing as one of our most prodigious talents. It's been a while, and anticipation for new work has been high, but White City – wild and beautiful, a whole addictive and breathlessly compelling world squeezed between these covers – has been worth every minute of the wait. A magnificent novel from a writer who is soaring to the most spectacular heights." - Billy O'Callaghan
"White City is a dark, hilarious and emotionally profound study of the toxic effects of greed and entitlement. Also, a story brilliantly and movingly told. Couldn’t stop reading it. Will read it again." - Ed O'Loughlin
"The kind of novel that makes writers jealous and readers cancel all their plans to finish it. As a commentary on the classless contemporary upper class, it's cutting and hilarious; as a portrait of the artist as a young man waylaid by his membership in that class, it's profound, unpretentious, unapologetically intelligent, and, again, really hilarious." - Lauren Oyler
"A fast-paced and wickedly funny novel. Hugely entertaining. White City grabbed me from the opening pages and didn't let go." - Danielle McLaughlin
"White City is brilliant on the high-octane vacuity of Ireland’s rentier class. Power’s trademark shimmering prose counterpoints a driving narrative... Brilliant." - Eoin McNamee
"With the brilliant Bad Day in Blackrock back in 2008, Kevin Power more than earned his standing as one of our most prodigious talents. It's been a while, and anticipation for new work has been high, but White City – wild and beautiful, a whole addictive and breathlessly compelling world squeezed between these covers – has been worth every minute of the wait. A magnificent novel from a writer who is soaring to the most spectacular heights." - Billy O'Callaghan
"White City is a dark, hilarious and emotionally profound study of the toxic effects of greed and entitlement. Also, a story brilliantly and movingly told. Couldn’t stop reading it. Will read it again." - Ed O'Loughlin
"The kind of novel that makes writers jealous and readers cancel all their plans to finish it. As a commentary on the classless contemporary upper class, it's cutting and hilarious; as a portrait of the artist as a young man waylaid by his membership in that class, it's profound, unpretentious, unapologetically intelligent, and, again, really hilarious." - Lauren Oyler
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