The Valparaiso Voyage

A literary thriller with a heart. 'The Valparaiso Voyage' blows the lid off the Celtic Tiger and looks at the corruption that spawned today's Ireland. Dermot Bolger is one of the leading figures on the Irish literary scene: very influential, amazingly energetic and prolific, popular and well respected. This is his eighth novel (and his third for Flamingo). Bolger's previous novel, 'Temptation', was a departure for this author. It was a story of family life, told from a woman's perspective. 'The Valparaiso Voyage' is, as you might say, Bolger returning to familiar territory – back to chronicling the darker side of contemporary Dublin life. It is the story of Brendan Brogan, who grew up in the small town of Navan on the outskirts of Dublin. An unhappy childhood, spent searching for love and affection, leads to an unhappy adulthood spent gambling and trying to hold a difficult marriage together. When circumstances offer Brogan a chance to fake his own death, he seizes the chance and...