Stump
2003
First Published
3.76
Average Rating
240
Number of Pages
" Stump makes you feel that you are reading on the edge of a life in a fierce gale, vulnerable, excited, alive." ― The Guardian (London) Wet an spectacular wreckage leads to "powerful forgetting" which leads to "periodics" which lead to the "dry drunks" which go to "immersion" an "enabler" an "therapeutic alliance" an any alternative, any fuckin alternative atropine aversion therapy or Antabuse or ECT or acufuckinpuncture or snakepits or swimming with dolphins an all of that all of it comes completely back to this one pure irreducible a booming heart that burns to drink. It has taken the loss of a limb and a death threat from the Mob to make one Liverpudlian dry out and move to a small seaside town in Wales. But his past life is a recurring nightmare―filth, desperation, and blackouts. And more trouble is only a hundred miles away. Darren and Alastair leave Liverpool, heading south in a rickety old car. They have been sent by their gang boss to wreak violent revenge, but they have only a rough idea of their a one-armed man. Interspersed between the scabrous banter and a pitch-perfect street dialect, Niall Griffiths offers stunning descriptions of the Welsh landscape and a dark, knowing humor. Despite the ever present drugs, violence, and anger, he reveals a fragile humanity. Graywolf is proud to introduce this striking, distinctive voice to American readers.
Avg Rating
3.76
Number of Ratings
188
5 STARS
23%
4 STARS
41%
3 STARS
27%
2 STARS
7%
1 STARS
2%
goodreads
Author
Niall Griffiths
Author · 10 books
Niall Griffiths was born in Liverpool to a Welsh/Irish/Romany lineage. He’s been a labourer, a barman, a server of fish and chips, a burglar, a farmhand, a tree feller, a factory worker and many other things too tedious to relate. Now, he’s a full-time writer, living at the foot of a mountain in mid-Wales, with seven novels published, several works of non-fiction and more short stories and radio plays and travel pieces and reviews than he cares to, or possibly even can, count. His fourth novel, Stump, won the Wales Book of the Year Award. A film adaptation of his third novel, Kelly+Victor, won a BAFTA. He’s now working on the screenplay for his sixth, Wreckage. His latest novel is Broken Ghost.
