Books by Niall Bourke

Willard, his mother and his girlfriend Nyla have spent their entire lives in an endless journey where daily survival is dictated by the ultimate imperative: obey the rules, or you will lose your place in the Line. Everything changes the day Willards mother dies and he finds an incomprehensible book hidden among her few belongings... In its Beckettian sparseness, Line pushes the boundaries of speculative, high concept fiction. Deeply moving, it also touches on many of the pressing issues of our turbulent world: migration and the refugee crisis, big data and the erosion of democracy, climate change, colonialism, economic exploitation, social conformity and religious fanaticism. A stunning debut from a major new voice in Irish literature.

Poetry. Fiction. An epic for an age without heroes, DID YOU PUT THE WEASELS OUT? is a celebration of the modern mythology that takes place in every small town. A modern update of the 8th century Gaelic saga The Ta-in, written in Alexander Pushkin's fiendish 'Onegin sonnet, ' Niall Bourke takes strict form to the extreme, and turns it into a hilarious, sharp-sighted satire of ordinary people's neuroses, indulgences and four-AM fears. Abandon your preconceptions: Bourke's prose-poetry operatic-verse-novel breaks all the rules--while managing to keep to them at the same time. Both traditional and undeniably of our time, DID YOU PUT THE WEASELS OUT? is poetry that celebrates the playfulness and uncertainty of being alive.