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A carnivalesque rockabilly narrative with a profoundly moving conclusion.

Patrick McCabe

A gem of a book. Owen O’Neill writes like the novel is his natural and lifelong home. Tom Joad and Me sings and zings and isn’t afraid to go for the heartstrings. (Though keep an eye on your other bits; it will grab you by them too.)

Glenn Patterson

A raw and lively tale with a vivid cast of characters all looking for better lives and how far they'll go to achieve them. In turn tender and hilarious dispatches from the building sites and boozers of pre-Thatcher London and Ireland.

Phil Jupitus

A rambunctious, freewheeling novel that feels like the fella at the end of the bar telling you a great story.  It moved me, frightened me, and ultimately cheered me up.  A real achievement.

Alan Bissett

Emmet McCrudden of Carricktown, Co. Tyrone is no more. Aged seventeen he has escaped his large working-class family and drunken violent father. He is now John Steinbeck’s fictional hero, Tom Joad. As an an immigrant in 1970s London Emmet is making a new identity. With the London pub rock scene in full flow, he’s writing for a music magazine and working on building sites.

But Emmet has no illusions about his role model:

‘Tom Joad had escaped. He had fled from the dust bowl poverty of Oklahoma to the orange groves of California – but he took his family with him and to my mind that was his big mistake. No way would I be taking the McCruddens with me.’

Darkly comic and moving, the master of the one-man show has progressed effortlessly to the novel form.

Owen O’Neill is an award-winning writer, actor, poet and director. Theatre writing includes sixteen one-man stage shows, two stage plays and an adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption. Other titles from Thirsty Books include Volcano Dancing and Broken Songs.