In this dense, wonderfully dark thriller we meet two men who share a secret and a tumultuous past. Their paths cross later in life and the fractures that defined their relationship come to the surface in the coastal city of San Sebastián.
The novel ‘A Billion Sharp Pieces’ takes the reader from the sun soaked paradisial city where we meet Jack and Todd’s partners and are introduced to their characters back in Cork where they both attended UCC and Dublin through a series of flashbacks.
The story asks the question: how far can someone be pushed before they snap.
The effect of living in close proximity to someone with an extreme personality changes us and the novel is a study of the human condition under sustained and unbearable pressure.
What crystalises from this close parasitic relationship is something the reader can explore from a safe distance. In Cork, we meet a shy, conflicted Todd and an extrovert in Jack. The college life of Todd and Jack and some of the city’s legendary pubs provide the imaginative backdrop for the fevered relationship that blossoms between the two.
The dynamic of their relationship is one of hero worship on the part of Todd towards Jack who is everything he wishes he was; a man who knew what he wanted and knew how to get it.
We meet some friends of the two and get to know Jack more during a lads’ holiday to Lanzarote where a violent encounter happens.
The characters of Todd and Jack’s partners are fleshed out with Jade earthy and unpretentious and Amanda egotistic and vain.
As the action returns to San Sebastián we see a darker side of Jack.
Todd’s resentment also starts to feature increasingly with the two old ‘friends’ set on a collision course amid the wealth and splendour of the golden northern Spanish city.
The casual violence meted out on some characters and cruel toxic masculinity in this sinuous story which spans the late 90s, 2000s, right up to 2019, provides a modern take on an age-old tale of jealousy, narcissism, the search for identity, and ultimately love.
The breathtaking finale and open-ended final page will leave the reader gasping for more as the protagonists play out a deadly end game.