Winner of The Polari First Book Prize 2016

Finalist for The People's Book Prize 2016

Shortlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2016

Chosen for City Reads 2016

Shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize

ELLE Best Books of 2015

The Reading Agency: Books of 2015

Mickey Donnelly is smart, which isn't a good thing in his part of town. Despite having a dog called Killer and being in love with the girl next door, everyone calls him 'gay'. It doesn't help that his best friend is his little sister, Wee Maggie, and that everyone knows he loves his Ma more than anything in the world. He doesn't think much of his older brother Paddy and really doesn't like his Da. He dreams of going to America, taking Wee Maggie and Ma with him, to get them away from Belfast and Da. Mickey realises it's all down to him. He has to protect Ma from herself. And sometimes, you have to be a bad boy to be a good son.

Born in Belfast, Paul's work has been performed on stage and radio, published in print and translated into seven languages. He began his career as a playwright before moving to London where he wrote comedy shows, which were performed at the Edinburgh Festival and in London's West End. Moving into prose, his short stories have been published in anthologies & literary journals been read on BBC Radio 3, 4 & 5. 'Hollow' was shortlisted for Irish Short Story of the Year at the Irish Book Awards in 2017. Paul co-founded the London Short Story Festival, of which, he was Director and Curator for 2014 & '15. He is associate director at Word Factory, 'the UK's national organisation for excellence in the short story' The Guardian.