With an introduction by Ross Raisin A modern classic of Irish fiction shortlisted for the 1992 Booker prize When I was a young lad twenty or thirty or forty years ago I lived in a small town where they were all after me on account of what I done on Mrs Nugent Francie Brady is a small-town rascal who spends his days turning a blind eye to the troubles at home & getting up to mischief with his best friend Joe
- hiding in the chicken-house shouting abuse at fish in the local stream But after a disagreement with his neighbour Mrs Nugent over her son's missing comic books Francie's reckless streak spirals out of control & gives rise to a monstrous obsession Fearless shocking & blackly funny Patrick Mc Cabe's The Butcher Boy won the 1992 Irish Times Literature Prize & was shortlisted for the 1992 Booker Prize It is a modern classic of Irish fiction a portrait of the insidious violence latent in small town life & of a frenzied young man lashing out at everyone even himself