Last Night on Earth

By: Kevin Maher

Narrated by: Owen McDonnell

Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Jay adores his small daughter, Bonnie, and nothing matters more to him than being a good father. But Bonnie's traumatic birth puts an unbearable strain on his marriage with Shauna, and the couple eventually separate.

Struggling to cope with the separation from three-year-old Bonnie, Jay thinks constantly of his own mother, whom he hasn't seen since he fled Ireland a decade before. Resolved to move forward, Jay finds himself a flat share with two eccentric Kenyan businessmen, snags a role working on a documentary about the Millennium Dome (through 'Dublin Darren', an old laboring contact), and is utterly rigid in his commitment to Bonnie time. Indeed, things might have even begun to look up were it not for the arrival of an old 'friend' from home. 'The Clappers' is six foot tall, four foot wide, built like several Guinness barrels strapped together, and is all, all woman. She means well, and she means to make everything right for Jay. But inevitably she makes it wrong.

A helter-skelter dash to Ireland results in some brutal revelations on behalf of Jay's mother, and an inevitable return to London culminates in a midnight epiphany in the shadow of Tony Blair, the queen, and Auld Lang Syne. Can Jay be a good father to Bonnie? Or is it too late?

The Fields, also by Kevin Maher, was shortlisted for the Authors Club Best First Novel Award.

©2015 Kevin Maher (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"The story unfolds like an action film with the beating heart of an intellectual rom-com. Jay's journey from young man to proper grown-up is told with tight, witty prose and deeply felt emotion." (Melissa Katsoulis, The Times)

"Exhilarating...the extraordinary love Jay feels for his daughter Bonnie tethers the story, and as Jay gets further mired in disaster, it's not so much the clock ticking down to Millennium Eve that builds the momentum but the question of whether Jay will be able to remake his family." (Daily Mail)

"A rowdy, compelling love story.... At its heart, Last Night on Earth is the story of two people who are very much in love and should be together, but whose marriage buckles under the strain of having a baby who may or may not have a disability. Jay and Shauna's struggle makes for compelling reading, and their anxiety over the welfare of their precious child will find resonance with every parent. Maher writes most powerfully when he is depicting the big emotions, love in particular - romantic love, filial love, parental love, the love between friends." (Guardian)

"Exhilarating...the extraordinary love Jay feels for his daughter Bonnie tethers the story, and as Jay gets further mired in disaster, it's not so much the clock ticking down to Millennium Eve that builds the momentum but the question of whether Jay will be able to remake his family." (Daily Mail)

"Extremely funny but between the comedy and verbal gymnastics, there are moments which are intensely moving and Maher accurately captures the thin line which most new parents tread between overwhelming love and complete terror. This funny, witty and compelling novel is a rollercoaster of a read." (Daily Express)