Close to Home

A Novel

By: Michael Magee

Narrated by: Conor MacNeill

Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

While growing up in West Belfast, Sean does everything he's supposed to do. He works hard, he studies, and he—mostly—stays out of trouble. The thirty-year conflict is over, he's told, and his future is lit with promise.

But when Sean returns home from university, he finds much of the same—the same friends doing the same gear in the same clubs; the same lost brothers and mad fathers; the same closed doors; the same silences. There are no jobs, Sean's degree isn't worth the paper it's written on, and no one will give him the time of day. One night, he assaults a stranger at a party, and everything begins to come undone.

Close to Home begins with this sudden act of violence and expands into a startling portrait of working-class Ireland under the long shadow of the Troubles. It's a first novel drawn from life, written with the immediacy of thought. It's about what happens when men get desperate, about the cycles of loss and trauma and secrecy that keep them trapped, and about the struggle to get free.

©2023 Michael Magee. (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Line on page 4 from The Shawshank Redemption, written by Stephen King/Frank Darabont (1995); line on page 93 from “Joe McDonnell,” written and composed by Brian Warfield, Skin Music; line on page 103 from “Question Time” by Ciaran Carson, reproduced by kind permission of the author’s estate and The Gallery Press (Loughcrew, Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland). From Belfast Confetti (1989);lines on page 201 from War and War by László Krasznahorkai, trans. George Szirtes (Profile, 2016); line on page 278 from The Joke by Milan Kundera, trans. Michael Henry Heim (Faber, 1992).

So bleak .

This story just breaks my heart. I was grateful that the ending had a whisper of a promise of better things ahead, but that is in no way certain. Very good narration.

Truly Great Writing

This isn't a complicated story. it describes being 20-something in many of our lives. it's just that real lives don't usually get captured in published novels because those who get published usually have connections - which means they've had privileged lives.

But Sean is living life. And Magee's words are deceptively simple. True dialogue beautifully rendered. Fabulous narration as well.

It took my back!

I’m not much of a reader so chose Audio Book for this one and listened on my journey back to America after a visit home to Belfast. This was a great story that kept me engaged the entire time. Loved hearing the Belfast accent as the narrator guided me through his struggles. Can’t wait for the next book. Well done.