Bogboy

by Patrick Kealey

Alfie O’Brien, soon to rename himself Bogboy, is born an orphan into a house of dead things, presided over by his imperious, ailing aunt. This is a place where the past won’t let the present go, where ghosts confer with the living, and where discovering who you are means coming face to face with some uncomfortable truths. It is a house cursed by shadows, secrets and dynasty.

While the wind blows in from the Atlantic across these Irish peatlands, old enmities bite down, and when Bogboy is left for dead, he must learn how to trust love, discover where he belongs, and reconcile himself with his destiny. The ancestors are gathering and Bogboy is about to become a man.

An audacious, rousing story of hope and beauty rising out of the dying embers of a corrupt and redundant regime, Bogboy is a story for our times, reminding us that attention to the natural world offers solace and healing, and that love – wherever we may find it – is always stronger than hatred.

267 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 29, 2025

Reviews

[Mary Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tender and heartrending story of Alfonse. Bogboy, a wild child free and at one with the nature that surrounds his home. His life is laid out in the authors most beautiful poetic prose. The characters he interacts with are complex. Jenks, who takes him in and cares for him,. Tia, the aunt left with the boy and realising she has to tell the truth about his birth in order to set him free. I really enjoyed this book. Great characters. Plenty of emotion. A wonderful read.

[Mel Fine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book beautiful, gripping and in places very dark. I hope he writes many more.

[Cat Buchanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bogboy is unquestionably one of the best novels I've read in decades. Intrigue, longing, betrayal, and redemption characterize this exceptional storyline - which is wrapped in descriptive detail and dialogue so vivid as to transport the reader right into the very heart of each scene. Forget walking the Yorkshire moors with Catherine and Heathcliff, Kealey's figures traverse the Irish peatlands in a visceral fashion that puts Bronte in the back seat. Bogboy's journey is thoroughly engaging. Dickensian in nature, without recourse to excessive sentimentality. Backstory is beautifully blended with current narrative action, enabling the past to combine rather than collide with circumstances crafted to ensure a satisfying conclusion for characters and readers alike.

The absence of chapters (reminiscent of James Joyce) may lull readers into thinking that breaks in the book will be easy to find, but think again. Once I embarked upon this gripping story I found it impossible to put down (let alone slow down) and doubled back on many occasions to savour the sensational language employed on each and every page. More than a novel, Bogboy is an exquisite contribution to contemporary literary fiction that will stand the test of time.

[Claire Steele · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful novel with a rough magic to it: lyrical, polyphonic, with an edgy beauty to the prose. This is a coming-of-age story that is lit with intense and sudden attractions and deep enmities. Deeply layered, densely allusive and hugely ambitious. Bogboy is a story that explores who we are and who we might be, and offers us a whole wardrobe of the tattered faded silks of cultural memories that we might cling to for comfort as a new era ushers us out of the past and into the future.

[Linda Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this a lot, the writing is poetic, lyrical and a there's a strong narrative propelling the story. Moments of tension are brilliantly described with a theatricality and underlying it all is a sense of humour and a great eye for character. A great read. More entertaining than the blurb and the cover might suggest.

[Melanie Sanco · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful read; engaging story, eloquent prose – the kind of book everybody hopes for when they first turn back the cover of it. Bogboy delivers. The art is exquisite – inside and out. An excavation of past and present. Maybe even a little of the future. Thanks for this amazing story, Mr. Kealey. Well told, sir.

[Jill Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ambitiously conceived and wonderfully executed, this is a fabulous coming-of-age story, laced through with moments of heart-stopping tenderness and poignant self-discovery. It’s also violent, funny and shocking. A real page-turner, whose characters have lived with me long after I finished reading.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good read. It certainly engaged me and kept me wanting to turn pages.