Fiction

Balzac, Homo Sapiens Sapiens Jones, The Mermaid, Kurdish militants, Irish gangs, and English firms – what do they have to do with a missing woman? Set in North London, the novel investigates friendship and loss, the shifting planes of past, present, and future, looks into how each of us manipulate time and space through memory and art, and asks the question – are we all in possession of unearthly powers? Balzac of the Badlands is neo-noir at its neo-ist. 

I’ve had enough of natterjack toads. I find red squirrels tedious. Sand lizards do nothing for me. Even great crested newts are boring. The only sign of any of these animals is their cracked and faded representations on the information notice boards.

I walk through the woodlands down to the beach. Hairy Kath is buried up to her neck in sand. I kneel beside her and extract her left foot. I squeeze her little toe until she squeals. Remarkably, Hairy Kath’s toes aren’t that hairy. Except the middle one. It’s very hairy.

         This one looks like Chewbacca, I say.

She squints.

And this one, I pinch her little toe again, is R2-D2. This one, where the skin is puckered at the top, is Obi-Wan. And this one, I kiss the blackberry bruise where she’d kicked me the week before, is Darth Vader. And this, I pull her big toe until the cartilage pops, is Jabba the Hutt.

         Fuck off, asshole, she says. 

         Will do, I say.

Written in verse that’s as projective as a hollow-point bullet, Nothing Matters explores the dark side of desire, the surreal side of sex, and the horror that humanity witnesses. Man and woman. Love and hate. Sex and violence. A road trip to the end of the world. On the way—murder, torture, lust, and despair. Shadowy figures haunt the anti-couple. As does their past... and their present. From the deserts of Nevada and California to the gargoyle-sentried skyscrapers of New Babylon, X and Z will stop at nothing to be together. But will they kill for it? If you loved Romeo and Juliet, you’ll hate this. Nothing Matters—a torque song for the 21st century, a torture song. X and Z are at the end of love, the end of language—read their story to find out Y. 

Some lies we live. Some truths we allow to die. London, 2008. An old man, Michael, sees out his final days sustained by Guinness and talk of the old country. But some memories won’t go quietly to the grave. Some mistakes are not erased by time. And no matter how hard he tries to forget, there’s always someone trying to dig up the skeletons of the past. Belfast, 1988. The height of the Troubles. Michael is a bagman, a messenger, a go-between, called on to perform one last little job for the IRA. After that, perhaps he can start to patch his life back together. After that, perhaps he can build a future for himself and his family. Just one last job... Down Among the Dead is a story of trouble and the Troubles, and a violent collision of past and present in the life of one man.