By Roger Boylan
Paperback: 9781628976496
eBook: 9781628976502
Publication Date: June 16th, 2026
Description
Roger Boylan is a booze-soaked humorist in the tradition of James Joyce, Flann O'Brien, and Samuel Beckett.
Roger Boylan’s first novel is about the inhabitants of the Irish town of Killoyle: Milo Rogers, a headwaiter and would-be poet with a bit of a drinking problem and a bit of a sexual one; Kathy Hickman, a writer for the woman's fashion magazine Glam andformer pin-up girl; Wolfetone Grey, who reads books only by or about God, and who also makes anonymous phone calls throughout the town in order to make people believe, among other things, that they have just won the lottery; and a host of other peculiar folks, all tortured by problems with God, sex, Ireland, and the drink. Accompanying all of this are hundreds of acerbic, hilarious footnotes from a nameless figure who rudely comments upon the characters and events.
Praise
“A virtuoso performance.” —Publishers Weekly
“One of the most impressive novels written by an American in recent years.” —The Austin Chronicle
“Not since A Confederacy of Dunces has a book been this hilarious to read aloud.” —The Evergreen Review
Biographical Note
Roger Boylan is an American writer who was raised in Ireland, France, and Switzerland and attended the University of Ulster and the University of Edinburgh. His novel Killoyle was published in 1997 by Dalkey Archive Press. Killoyle became the first book in the “Killoyle trilogy,” followed by The Great Pint-Pulling Olympiad in 2003 and The Maladjusted Terrorist in 2006. In 2011, Boylan published a memoir, Run Like Blazes, and followed it in 2012 with his magnum opus, The Adorations, also available from Dalkey Archive Press. Boylan is a regular contributor to the Boston Review’s New Fiction Forum, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Economist. He currently lives in Texas.