Congratulations Toby Binder on ‘Wee Muckers’ becoming huge photo features in The Guardian and now The Washington Post – where my introduction is quoted: “poverty, political strife and living in fear was what we had in common. And the Troubles has become this hugely enveloping, shared experience that binds those generations as much as it divides”.
I’ve written the introduction to Toby Binder’s wonderful photo book ‘Wee Muckers’ which is launched in Munich tonight! The book is a series of photographs of working class youths in Belfast.
German TV, Das Erste 1, flew over to do an interview with me and I took them around Ardoyne, where I grew up and where The Good Son is set.
You can watch the TV segment here (in German). You can buy Guter Junge (German translation) or The Good Son in English here.
Thanks to Cathy Brown’s blog in response to Anna Burns Booker Prize win. Cathy name checks The Good Son among some wonderful books from Northern Ireland. Have a read here.
An interview with me appeared in the German broadsheet Die Welt at the weekend.
It follows on some of the points raised in my essay for International Literature Showcase ‘Crossing Borders’ which was later picked up by The Belfast Telegraph.
The interview is in German, of course, so I have only google translate to help me read it. I hope I come across ok.
The German translation of The Good Son is ‘Guter Junge’ and if you happen to speak German you might enjoy these short extracts read by a wonderful German actor Denis Abrahams – Part 1 & Part 2.
“Told vividly and with grim humour… McVeigh’s lush and, against all probability colourful novel from a black and white world bears the utopia that even in dark times, the hope can not be defeated.” Die Welt
The Good Son 