
The Irish contemporary classic in a beautiful new edition ' Weren't you never out for an easy dip?' he asked 'I don't mean the baths I mean with a pal For a lark like' Out at the Forty Foot that great jut of Dublin rock where gentlemen bathe in the scandalous nude two boys meet day after day There they make a pact that Doyler will teach Jim to swim & in a year they will swim the bay to the distant beacon of the Muglins rock to raise the Green & claim it for themselves As a turbulent year drives inexorably towards the Easter Rising of 1916 & Ireland sets forth on a path to uncertain glory a tender secret love story unfolds Written with verve & mastery in a modern Irish tradition descended from James Joyce & Flann O' Brien At Swim Two Boys is a shimmering novel of unforgettable ambition intensity & humanity ' One of the greatest Irish novels ever written' David Marcus ' The music of Jamie O' Neill's prose creates a new Irish symphony' Peter Ackroyd ' Heartachingly beautiful' Independent on Sunday 'A vivid picture of human freedom' Sunday Times