Himself

When Mahony returns to Mulderrig, a speck of a place on Ireland’s west coast, he brings only his handsome face, a photograph of his long-lost mother and a determination to do battle with the village’s lies. His arrival causes cheeks to flush and arms to fold in disapproval. No one – living or dead – will tell what happened to the teenage mother who abandoned him as a baby, despite Mahony’s certainty that more than one of them has answers. Between Mulderrig’s sly priest, its pitiless nurse and the caustic elderly actress throwing herself into her final village play, this beautiful and blackly comic debut novel creates in crystal-clear, musical language an unforgettable world of strange kindnesses, bloody violence and buried secrets.

Reviews of Himself

Himself is a sort of Under Milk Wood meets The Third Policeman meets Agatha Christie. It's a highly unusual tale set in a highly unusual Irish village full of dark secrets and engaging characters (not all of them still alive). Lushly imagined, delightfully original and very, very funny, it hurtles along from the very first page. A hugely enjoyable read. I can't wait for more from Jess Kidd — ML STEDMAN, author of The Light Between Oceans Jess Kidd is a genius. Her prose sparkles with wit, savagery and startling originality. I loved it — TASHA KAVANAGH, author of Things We Have In Common Beautiful, haunting and veined with wicked wit, Himself is a mystery you want to tear through, written in prose you want to savour — SIMON WROE, author of Chop Chop