Overthrown by strangers

by Ronan Bennett

This is the story of Quinn, Judy and Agustin and their flight through Latin America from the scene of the murder in Los Angeles. The author's book "The Second Prison" was shortlisted for the Irish Times Aer Lingus First Fiction Award.

Genres: Fiction

346 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Ronan Bennett is a novelist and screenwriter who was born and brought up in Northern Ireland and now lives in London. His third novel, The Catastrophist, was nominated for the Whibread award in 1998. Havoc, in Its Third Year (2004) was listed for the Booker prize. Havoc has been adapted into a motion picture to be released later in 2012. His latest novel is Zugzwang. His television drama Top Boy will be broadcast by Channel 4 in November 2011.

In addition to Havoc and Top Boy, Ronan has an excessive amount of work writing and creating for both television and the screen.

Long before Ronan ever thought of becoming a writer, he did a brief stint in prison for crimes perpetrated by the Irish Republican Army, crimes he was wrongly accused for.

Reviews

[Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful, hard-hitting account of American "Christian" evangelism in Latin America.

[Roland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ronan Bennett is one of the finest writers we have. I'm surprised that he is not more renowned and would love to have the chance to read more of his work.

[Ewan Morrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but depressing novel. Some beautiful writing, but bleak and aimless at times.

[Eddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an early effort by Bennett. At times the dialogue was a little simplistic but the seeds of his potential are all there in the narrative. This was a bleak novel with few redeeming characters. There was none of the conflicting moralities that are evidenced in his masterpiece The Catastrophist.

[To the point · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first year I've read anything by Ronan Bennett. Can't believe I missed out on him. This story has an element of thrill to it but also deals with being totally alone, self-resilient and sufficient in a world full of people. Quite depressing yet moving.