The acclaimed debut from the author of Booker-listed Solar Bones is a dark, uncanny collection of stunning breadth and audacity.In this gothic, virtuoso debut collection, Mike McCormack dispenses nightmares both stylish and macabre. “A Is for Ax” offers an alphabetized account of the killing of a parent, while the title story tracks a chilling sibling rivalry. Others tell of a quiz on the road to Calvary, a door-to-door saleswoman trafficking in strange and menacing feats, and a self-mutilating artist pushing himself to the limit. These sly and dangerous stories, balanced on a knife’s edge between life and death, showcase a young writer’s mastery of wicked formal play.
Originally published in 1996, the first book from the author of Booker-listed Solar Bones is a dark, uncanny collection of stunning breadth and audacity.
In this gothic, virtuoso debut collection (a New York Times Notable Book), Mike McCormack dispenses nightmares both stylish and macabre. "A Is for Ax" offers alphabetized look at the killing of a parent, while the title story tracks a chilling sibling rivalry. Other works here offer multiple-quiz on the road to Calvary, a door-to-door saleswoman trafficking in strange and menacing feats, and a self-mutilating artist pushing himself to the limit. These sly and dangerous stories show us a young writer who was already a master of wicked formal play, and whose sly takes on life and death remain profoundly unsettling.
Praise for Getting It in the Head
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature
"Funny, fantastical tales that trample inventively on the toes of sanctimonious news media, provincial pride and the 20th century itself."
—The New York Times Book Review "Sharp as knives, mixing tongue-in-cheek bog Gothic with metaphysical flourishes and lashings of ultraviolence."
—The Guardian “McCormack’s first collection of short stories ranges from the west of Ireland to New York to Purgatory . . . A helpless howl of protest that presages not only the end of the [twentieth] century but the end of civilisation itself.”
—Times Literary Supplement “Remarkable, even at the most extreme moments.”
—The Irish Times "There’s no denying McCormack’s knack for throwing a harsh light on some of life’s grimmer corners. Disturbing, audacious work."
—Kirkus Reviews
