Notes from a Coma

After suffering a catastrophic breakdown, J.J. O’Malley volunteers for a government project exploring the possibility of using coma as a means to keep prisoners under control. Floating in a maintained coma on a prison ship off the west coast of Ireland, his coma goes viral and the nation turns to watch. Brilliantly imagined and artfully constructed – merging science fiction with an affectionate portrait of small town Ireland – Notes from a Coma is a compassionate examination of a man cursed with guilt and genius.

Reviews of Notes from a Coma

The first great 21st-century Irish novel * * Irish Times * * Adventurous and ambitious — Colm Toibin McCormack's language is lovely, lyrical . . . his humor is dark, macabre; the words glimmer like a spell * * Time Out * * McCormack's obsessions at times converge with those explored by Ian McEwan, Will Self and J. G. Ballard, but his clever ideas and fluid, gracefully morbid style are all his own * * GQ * * When venturing into the realm of the macabre, a writer gains a distinct advantage if he has a sense of discipline and a sense of humor . . . Mike McCormack has both to spare . . . Like parables in their easy transcendence of setting and time, the most audacious stories are classics * * The New York Times Book Review * * A cross between 1984 and The X-Files . . . Notes From a Coma establishes McCormack as one of the most original and important voices in contemporary Irish fiction * * Irish Times * *