LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 BOOKER PRIZE
From the award-winning writer of Homesickness and Young Skins, a darkly funny and deeply moving debut novel about crimes of desperation, dreams abandoned, and small-town secrets that won’t stay buried.

As Ballina in the west of Ireland prepares for its biggest weekend of the year, the simmering feud between small-time dealer Cillian English and County Mayo's fraternal enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum.

When the reclusive Dev answers his door on Friday night, he finds Doll—Cillian's bruised, sullen, teenage brother—in the clutches of Gabe and Sketch. Jostled by his nefarious cousins, goaded by his dead mother's dog, and struck by spinning lights, Dev is unwillingly drawn headlong into the Ferdias' revenge fantasy.

Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Nicky can't shake the feeling something bad has happened to her boyfriend Doll. Hungover, reeling from a fractious Friday night, and plagued by ghosts of her own, Nicky sets out on a feverish mission to save Doll, even as she questions her future in Ballina.

The beautifully crafted, thrillingly-told story of two outsiders striving to find themselves as their worlds collapse in chaos and violence, Wild Houses is the long-anticipated debut novel from award-winning and critically-acclaimed short story writer, Colin Barrett.

Colin Barrett's profile page

COLIN BARRETT was born in Canada in 1982 and grew up in County Mayo. In 2009, he was awarded the Penguin Ireland Prize. Homesickness was named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, and Young Skins won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the Guardian First Book Award, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His work has been published in The New Yorker, A Public Space, Granta, and The Stinging Fly. In 2015, Barrett was named a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35.”

One of The Guardian’s Best Books of the Summer • One of the Globe and Mail's most anticipated books of 2024

“[W]hen reading Barrett, one is immediately struck by a sensation best described as relief: the realisation that one is in safe hands here; this is a writer of glaringly obvious talent, operating at a seriously high level. […] Barrett’s handling of dialogue . . . is so consistently witty and inventive that one struggles to think of recent novels that could stand up to comparison. […] Wild Houses [is] a novel which proves that, in the right hands, fine lines can fill a canvas as effectively as the boldest of brushstrokes.”
—The Guardian, Book of the Day
“In Colin Barrett’s nimble hands . . . the lives of a small collective of mournful souls become vibrant before us, and their yearning is depicted with wistfulness, no small amount of humor and one dangerously ill-tempered goat.”
—Dennis Lehane, New York Times

“His prose is a delight from the first page. . . . Barrett is a leading member of the world-beating new generation of Irish authors.”
—iNews

“A novel such as Wild Houses realises life in full and without pity. Violence is undercut with idiosyncratic humour. . . . A palpable sense of human eccentricity, and endurance, is always there, just beneath the surface.”
—The Telegraph

“Adroit. . . . A pointed and poignant commentary on life on the edges in rural Ireland.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“After years of short stories, Barrett’s transition to the longer span of the novel is confidently done. Descriptive set pieces are linked and expanded, yet every paragraph is created with care.”
—Financial Times
“Colin Barrett proves himself a self-confident novelist with Wild Houses.”
—Andre Forget, Literary Review of Canada
“A truly compelling debut.”
—Jeffrey Condran, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“The craft of Wild Houses shows a master writer spreading his wings. . . . Clearly, those years of writing short stories have given Barrett an appreciation for how fit every sentence must be; there isn’t a slacker in this trim book. Even the asides and flashbacks hurtle the whole project forward toward a climax that feels equally tensile and poignant, like some strange cloak woven from wire and wool.”
—Ron Charles, Washington Post
“Wild Houses is akin to a Yo-Yo Ma concert at Carnegie Hall: Barrett’s pitch is perfect, the acoustics divine. . . . Wild Houses unfurls like a controlled detonation, rich with wonder and catharsis.”
—Hamilton Cain, The Star Tribune

“Tightly controlled and propulsive”
—Toronto Star

“There's pure pleasure in reading Barrett's crisp prose, brimming with descriptions….Colin Barrett's first novel is an engaging story of the machinations of a group of small-time criminals in small-town Ireland.”
—Shelf Awareness

“Wild Houses delivers on the promise of Barrett’s short stories. It’s the way he tells them.”
—Business Post

“[A] dark and raucous narrative….highlighting themes of desperation, dreams abandoned, and secrets that refuse to stay buried. Barrett’s linguistic dexterity paints a resonant portrait of everyday life, characterized by gritty and vibrant depictions of small-town Irish life.”
— Culture.org

“Barrett is both working in a tradition and striking out on his own….Barrett has shown he can dig the depths and well as stroll the heights.”
—The Critic

“Vivid and wild, funny and chilling—Wild Houses is the business.”
—Roddy Doyle, author of Booker Prize winner Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

“Wild Houses has a rare momentum that comes from the rhythms of the sentences, the vivid descriptions, and the brilliantly chosen details. The momentum emerges also from the depth and complexity of the main characters and the wide sweep of the narrative. In a small town in the west of Ireland over a few days, a whole world, memorable and edgy, is captured for the reader.” —Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn and The Magician

“Colin Barrett quietly, insistently, writes so deeply into his characters you could reach out and touch them. Wild Houses is a gift of true storytelling and Barrett’s talent burns up the page.”
—Anne Enright, author of The Wren, The Wren

“This strange and beautiful novel brings to life an entire world. Wild Houses is a book not just to read but to live inside.”
—Sally Rooney, author of Normal People

“Wild Houses is swift, tender, and honest. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so worried, so heartbroken, so moved by a set of funny misfits. Barrett is one of our keenest observers of the miraculous amid the everyday and of the uncommon beauty of common things, the power of attention. When I finished this novel, I desperately wanted to call Dev, Doll, or Nicky, just to see if they were okay, to see if everything had turned out alright. A brilliant novel.”
—Brandon Taylor, author of Filthy Animals and Real Life

“Vivid, controlled, very funny, and very moving—Barrett has the kind of pure writing chops that are vanishingly rare.”
—Kevin Barry, author of City of Bohane and Night Boat to Tangier

“Wild Houses is a wonder of a novel—crackling with tension and gifted with fine, strong language. Colin Barrett is a superb storyteller, and this is a tale for the ages.”
—Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13

“Colin Barrett proved with his short stories that he’s not only one of the most stylistically gifted writers working now, but also one of the most generous. His first novel, Wild Houses, is deft, intricate, unique—restorative in its refusal to be anything but itself. Colin Barrett is a talent of the rarest kind.”
—Nicole Flattery, author of Nothing Special

“Few people truly understand the deep tensions, traumas and banality of violence that can be found in small town life quite like Colin Barrett. Crime and the characters who commit it is his forte, but his writing is never less than masterful, and he sits squarely in the centre of a golden generation of new Irish writers.”
—Benjamin Myers, author of Cuddy and The Gallows Pole

“Wild Houses is a taut, brooding thunderstorm of a novel.”
—Rónán Hession, author of Leonard and Hungry Paul

“Sharp and affecting, expansive and playful, Barrett has written a gorgeous novel filled with gorgeous sentences. A dream to read, and no doubt destined to be one of the novels of the year.”
—Michael Magee, author of Close to Home