THE BASTARD PLEASURE

An intense metaphysical drama set in Belfast at the height of the Troubles which tells a story of violence and retribution

A young boy works the overnight shift in a Belfast City bakery, with a co-worker who has a predatory sexual interest in him. It is 1972. Terrorist saboteurs invade the premises, throwing the factory into darkness. A night of violence follows, in which the hostage-takers put in motion a sadistic act of revenge. The story is recounted by the boy, now grown, to an interlocutor not unfamiliar with the events, and the personal history of a man scarred inside and out is revealed, with references that whipsaw from moral philosophy to sport and classic film. A tale of innocence lost, told with dark humor and dizzying erudition, as if A Clockwork Orange exploded In the Night Kitchen. Seán McGrady, a former university lecturer in philosophy, was raised in Belfast. This is his second novel. McGrady's first novel, The Backslider, was published in 2012