Roddy Doyle

The Commitments is a band with a mission: bringing soul to Dublin. Led by Jimmy Rabitte, a young man with ambition, coached by Joey "The Lips" Fagan, an old man with a trumpet, protected by Mickah Wallace, owner of the most feared forehead in Barrytown. -- Publisher details.

The Commitments

La 2e de couv. indique : "One summer's evening, two men meet up in a Dublin restaurant. Old friends, now married and with grown-up children, their lives have taken seemingly similar paths. But Joe has a secret he has to tell Davy, and Davy has a grief he wants to keep from Joe. Both are not the men they used to be. Neither Davy nor Joe knows what the night has in store, but as two pints turns to three, then five, and the men set out to revisit the haunts of their youth, the ghosts of Dublin entwine around them. Their first buoyant forays into adulthood, the pubs, the parties, broken hearts and bungled affairs, as well as the memories of what eventually drove them apart. As the two friends try to reconcile their versions of the past over the course of one night, « Love » offers up a delightfully comic, yet moving portrait of the many forms love can take throughout our lives."

Love

Just moved in to a new apartment, alone for the first time in years, Victor Forde goes every evening to Donnelly's pub for a pint, a slow one. One evening his drink is interrupted. A man in shorts and pink shirt brings over his pint and sits down. He seems to know Victor's name and to remember him from school. Says his name is Fitzpatrick. Victor dislikes him on sight, dislikes too the memories that Fitzpatrick stirs up of five years being taught by the Christian Brothers. He prompts other memories too - of Rachel, his beautiful wife who became a celebrity, and of Victor's own small claim to fame, as the man who says the unsayable on the radio. But it's the memories of school, and of one particular Brother, that he cannot control and which eventually threaten to destroy his sanity. Smile has all the features for which Roddy Doyle has become famous: the razor-sharp dialogue, the humour, the superb evocation of childhood - but this is a novel unlike any he has written before. When you finish the last page you will have been challenged to re-evaluate everything you think you remember so clearly.

Smile

Julene Harrison

The best-ever children's novel from the brilliant Roddy Doyle is a funny, sad story about four generations of a family. Twelve-year-old Mary's beloved grandmother is near the end of her life. Letting go is hard-until Granny's long-dead mammy appears at Mary's door, returning to help her dying daughter say goodbye. But first she needs someone to drive them all on a visit to the past. A Greyhound of a Girl is a perfectly pitched, sharp and tender tale of family history, cracking characters, and bonds between mothers and daughters that will entrance readers from 10 to adult.

A Greyhound of a Girl

A one-volume edition of the celebrated trio of novels about the Rabbitte family, from the author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and The Guts (Viking, January 2014) ? which features the return of Jimmy Rabbitte, founder of the Commitments.

The Barrytown Trilogy

Jimmy Rabbitte is back. The man who invented the Commitments back in the 1980s is now 47, with a loving wife, 4 kids ... and bowel cancer. He isn't dying, he thinks, but he might be. Jimmy still loves his music, and he still loves to hustle--his new thing is finding old bands and then finding the people who loved them enough to pay money online for their resurrected singles and albums. On his path through Dublin, between chemo and work he meets two of the Commitments--Outspan Foster, whose own illness is probably terminal, and Imelda Quirk, still as gorgeous as ever. He is reunited with his long-lost brother, Les, and learns to play the trumpet.

The Guts

***A GUARDIAN BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR THIS AUTUMN*** A brilliantly warm, witty and moving portrait of our pandemic lives, told in ten heart-rending short stories Love and marriage. Children and family. Death and grief. Life touches everyone the same. But living under lockdown, it changes us alone. In these ten, beautifully moving short stories mostly written over the last year, Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle paints a collective portrait of our strange times. A man abroad wanders the stag-and-hen-strewn streets of Newcastle, as news of the virus at home asks him to question his next move. An exhausted nurse struggles to let go, having lost a much-loved patient in isolation. A middle-aged son, barred from his mother's funeral, wakes to an oncoming hangover of regret. Told with Doyle's signature warmth, wit and extraordinary eye for the richness that underpins the quiet of our lives, Life Without Children cuts to the heart of how we are all navigating loss, loneliness, and the shifting of history underneath our feet. 'Roddy Doyle is an absolute genius' J.K. Rowling 'The undisputed laureate of ordinary lives' The Times

Stories

Life Without Children

William Boyd

Philip Pullman

Pico Iyer

Chigozie Obioma

Candice Carty-Williams

Robert Macfarlane

Jackie Morris

Imtiaz Dharker

Andy Miller

Jennie Orchard

The Gifts of Reading

Henry Smart is on the run from his Republican paymasters, the men for whom he had perpetrated murder and mayhem, fleeing from Dublin to Liverpool to Ellis Island, New York.

Oh, Play That Thing

As Irish teenager Grainne anxiously prepares for a reunion with her mother, who abandoned the family years before, Grainne's half-brothers and their mother take a dogsledding vacation in Finland where they face great danger.

Wilderness

Mr Mack's dog Rover sells is own poo to the gigglers - small creatures who take revenge on any adult who treats children unfairly by making the unsuspecting adults step in poo. When the gigglers set out to exact punishment on Mr Mack, Rover knows he doesn't deserve it, and the race is on to get to him before he takes that fatal step.

The Giggler Treatment

Eight short stories examining the immigrant experience in Ireland.

The Deportees and Other Stories

Two men meet for a pint in a Dublin pub. They chew the fat, set the world to rights and take the piss. They talk of their wives, children, pets, football teams and about the Euro. In their fashion they mourn the deaths of Whitney Houston and Robin Gibb.

Two Pints

Pat had been best friends with Joe Murphy since they were kids. But years ago they had a fight. A big one, and they haven't spoken since --- till the day before Joe's funeral. What? On the day before his funeral Joe would be dead, wouldn't he? Yes, he would. Roddy Doyle's first book for the Quick Reads programme to support adult literacy is fast, funny and just a tiny bit spooky.

Dead Man Talking

Brian Ajhar

When Rudolph comes down with the flu, it's up to Rover the dog and the Mack children to help Santa complete his Christmas deliveries.

Rover Saves Christmas

Roy Keane

In an eighteen-year playing career for Cobh Ramblers, Nottingham Forest (under Brian Clough), Manchester United (under Sir Alex Ferguson) and Celtic, Roy Keane dominated every midfield he led to glory. Aggressive and highly competitive, his attitude helped him to excel as captain of Manchester United from 1997 until his departure in 2005. Playing at an international level for nearly all his career, he represented the Republic of Ireland for over fourteen years, mainly as team captain, until an incident with national coach Mick McCarthy resulted in Keane's walk-out from the 2002 World Cup. Since retiring as a player, Keane has managed Sunderland and Ipswich and has become a highly respected television pundit. As part of a tiny elite of football players, Roy Keane has had a life like no other. His status as one of football's greatest stars is undisputed, but what of the challenges beyond the pitch? How did he succeed in coming to terms with life as a former Manchester United and Ireland leader and champion, reinventing himself as a manager and then a broadcaster, and cope with the psychological struggles this entailed? In a stunning collaboration with Booker Prize-winning author Roddy Doyle, THE SECOND HALF blends anecdote and reflection in Roy Keane's inimitable voice. The result is an unforgettable personal odyssey which fearlessly challenges the meaning of success.

The Second Half

Two men meet for a pint âe" or two âe" in a Dublin pub. They chew the fat, set the world to rights, curse the ref, say a last farewellâe¦ In this second collection of comic dialogues Doyleâe(tm)s drinkers ponder: - a topless Kate Middleton - Barack and Michelle Obama (âe~fuckinâe(tm) gorgeousâe(tm)) - David Beckham (âe~Would you tattoo your kidsâe(tm) names on the back of your neck?âe(tm) âe~They wouldnâe(tm)t fitâe(tm)) - Jimmy Savile (âe~a gobshiteâe(tm)) - the financial crisis (again) - abortion (again) - and horsemeat in your burgerâe¦ Once again, those we have lost troop through their thoughts - Lou Reed, Seamus Heaney, Reg Presley, Nelson Mandela (âe~he should never have left the Four Topsâe(tm)), Phil Everly, Margaret Thatcher, Shirley Temple - and they still have that unerring ability to ask the really fundamental questions like âe~Would you take penalty points for your missis?âe(tm)

Two More Pints

John Wood

Jan Morris

Madeleine Thien

Michael Ondaatje

Alice Pung

Max Porter

S.F. Said

Salley Vickers

Jancis Robinson

Dina Nayeri

David Pilling

Sisonke Msimang

Markus Zusak

'This story, like so many stories, begins with a gift. The gift, like so many gifts, was a book...' So begins the essay by Robert Macfarlane that inspired this collection. In this cornucopia of an anthology, you will find essays by some of the world's most beloved novelists, nonfiction writers, essayists and poets. 'You will see books taking flight in flocks, migrating around the world, landing in people's hearts and changing them for a day or a year or a lifetime. 'You will see books sparking wonder or anger; throwing open windows into other languages, other cultures, other minds; causing people to fall in love or to fight for what is right. 'And more than anything, over and over again, you will see books and words being given, received and read - and in turn prompting further generosity.' Published to coincide with the 20th anniversary of global literacy non-profit, Room to Read, The Gifts of Reading forms inspiring, unforgettable, irresistible proof of the power and necessity of books and reading. Inspired by Robert Macfarlane Curated by Jennie Orchard With contributions by: William Boyd, Candice Carty-Williams, Imtiaz Dharker, Roddy Doyle, Pico Iyer, Andy Miller, Jackie Morris, Jan Morris, Sisonke Msimang, Dina Nayeri, Chigozie Obioma, Michael Ondaatje, David Pilling Max Porter, Philip Pullman, Alice Pung, Jancis Robinson, S.F.Said, Madeleine Thien, Salley Vickers, John Wood and Markus Zusak

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE FOR COMIC WRITING 2019** Meet Charlie Savage- a middle-aged Dubliner with an indefatigable wife, an exasperated daughter, a drinking buddy who's realized that he's been a woman all along... Compiled here for the first time is a whole year's worth of Roddy Doyle's hilariousseries for the Irish Independent. Giving a unique voice to the everyday, he draws a portrait of a man - funny, loyal, somewhat bewildered - trying to keep pace with the modern world (if his knees don't give out first).

Charlie Savage

Jimmy Rabbitte hates jazz, always has. But his wife Aiofe loves it, and Jimmy loves Aiofe. So when, in attempt to convert him, she buys him two tickets for a Keith Jarrett concert he decides to take Outspan, former member of Jimmy’s band The Commitments, who has come back into his life after a chance meeting in the cancer clinic. Jarrett is famous for being intolerant of any noise at all – a cough, a sneeze, a wheeze – from the audience, stopping playing and shaming the perpetrator. And Outspan’s diagnosis is lung cancer, it’s pretty bad, and he needs an oxygen cylinder to breathe properly. Will Outspan create havoc? Will Jimmy learn to love jazz at last?

Roddy Doyle

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