Brendan Mathews

Three brothers caught up in a whirlwind week of love, blackmail, and betrayal that culminates in an assassination plot, set in 1930s New York. Francis Dempsey and his deaf-mute and shell-shocked brother, Michael, are on an ocean liner from Ireland headed for their brother Martin's home in New York City, having absconded with a small fortune stolen from the IRA. But when Tom Cronin, a retired henchman forced into one last job, tracks the brothers down, Francis must capitulate to blackmail, or have his family suffer fatal consequences. New York, meanwhile, is suffused with the electric fervor of the World's Fair, which will see the country play host to a reigning British monarch for the first time in history. But when the befuddled Michael disappears, wandering the streets of Manhattan, and Francis becomes embroiled in an assassination plot, the brothers' long-awaited reunion with Martin may be short-lived. From the boozy nightclubs of Harlem to the backroom warrens of mobsters on the make, Brendan Mathews brings prewar New York to vivid, pulsing life, while the sweeping and intricate storytelling of this remarkable debut reveals an America that blithely hoped it could avoid another catastrophic war by focusing instead on the promise of the Fair: a peaceful, prosperous "World of Tomorrow."

The World of Tomorrow

This engrossing first story collection by rising star Brendan Mathews is packed with compelling tales such as "My Last Attempt to Explain to You What Happened with the Lion Tamer," in which a love triangle complicates things between a lion tamer, a trapeze artist, and the strongman. Mathews effortlessly weaves irresistible stories from a wide array of situations, as in "Airborne," in which a couple's obsession with a mold in their house causes them to tear it apart plank by plank. A worker in architectural salvage trying to two-time his boss by stealing a valuable antique, a father and his sons haggling over the family business during high-stakes rounds of golf, and a widow of the Bosnian conflict recalling her husband's demise and her dramatic escape are only a few of the warm and intimately revealed characters populating Mathews's enchanting collection. This Is Not a Love Song is proof positive that Mathews is every bit the expert minimalist that he was the boisterous maximalist, as each of these ten stories brings its world and its sympathetic characters to life with vivid detail, emotional precision, and winning humor.

This Is Not a Love Song

From the opening scene of a shameless Irish charmer posing as a wealthy Scottish lord, this rollicking tale of love, blackmail and betrayal in 1930s New York takes you captive. Only ten days before Sir Angus McFarquar, aka Irish scamp Francis Xavier Dempsey, had been released from a Dublin prison for his father’s funeral when he and his brother were whisked to a getaway car bound for an IRA ‘safe’ house. When the house explodes and cash rains from the sky, the boys take the money and run … When Tom Cronin, a former hitman forced into one last job, tracks the Dempsey brothers down in New York, their lives collide spectacularly. From the smoky jazz joints of Harlem to the mobster warehouses in Hell's Kitchen, The World of Tomorrow delivers superb storytelling, unforgettable characters, and a thoroughly good time. It's easy to see why it was picked as of the top six debuts novels for 2017 at Book Expo’s ‘Buzz Panel’.

Brendan Mathews

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