Sudden Times [signed] [first edition]

Ollie Ewing has returned home from London to Sligo. In a daze, Ollie goes from job to job and from lodging to lodging until he settles in a run-down house with a group of art students. At night the noise comes from the street-drunks, screaming women, church bells, taxis, skinheads. Mornings he wakes up wondering what had happened, then goes to bed the next night wondering what will. Haunted by memories, Ollie hears voices interrogating him. And so unravels the story of the time he spent in London and how he has reached his present state of near madness. As he embarks on his journey to confront his experiences, we are led into the world of racketeering, sinister bosses, murder, and the hard, squalid life of foreign workers. A powerful, richly told story of an Irish working-class family, Sudden Times is original in concept and execution, tough but blessed with humor and empathy.