Click on Colm’s  image above to read his blog

Today meet an Irish writer who in his words “gave up writing and decided to live instead,” meet Colm Herron – he’s back!

His new book THE WAKE (and WHAT JEREMIAH DID NEXT)  was released last month.  Here’s the synopsis:

MAUD ABILENE HARRIGAN is the neighbour nobody wants to have. Day after day when Jeremiah Coffey and his mother sit down to eat dinner Maud stands at their kitchen door watching every bite that goes into their mouths. And then one fine day she drops dead right in front of them.

Available now on Amazon!

Here is a review I wrote:

In this new rendition of The Wake (What Jeremiah did Next)  Colm Herron does not hold back and the results are stunning.  As he says on his website:  “…did you ever wonder how in hell Ireland turned out so many great writers?  Well, that’s it.  I’ve just said it: they turned them out.  On their ear.”  This book is so good, and Colm Herron such a treat to read on so many levels that, mark my words, he will end up on that list of banished Irish writers, banished for exposing too much.  The novel begins with “wake without bereavement” for Maud Harrigan, a woman no one liked but none-the-less the townsfolk drift in and out for show – to have a drink, to rage on about how drink is ruining Ireland, to gossip, debate politics and listen to slimy priests tell inappropriate jokes. The narrator is a young man named Jeremiah at whose house the wake is being held because, well, it had to be done, now didn’t it?  No one wants to risk going to hell.  However Jeremiah decides to take his chances, engaging in sex out of marriage and not in the Missionary position with a lady who sometimes prefers another ladies to him. Herron takes on the church, satirizes Irish politics and tells a basically sweet story of a young man in love.    

Here are some reviews of novels he previously published.  First, FOR I HAVE SINNED

For I Have Sinned – available on Amazon

One of the funniest pieces of Irish writing since Flann O’Brien laid down the pen’
– Sunday Tribune

‘Colm Herron has written a novel which will storm the Irish literary scene’
– Irish World

‘Perhaps the greatest tribute I can pay to this quirky, funny and deeply affecting novel is to declare that the moment I finished reading it, I immediately turned back to the first page to begin again. And it’s even better second time around.” – Ferdia Mac Anna, Sunday Independent

Next: THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF JAMES JOYCE

Synopsis: A perfect recipe for laughter and relaxation. Colm Herron’s latest offering tells what happens on the day James Joyce returns from the dead and shacks up with book-loving nymphomaniac Melanie Muldoon. It’s a novel that will have ordinary readers laughing themselves silly while Joyce scholars sit and work out what the hell’s behind it all.

….Now here’s how two people saw the book in  very different ways:

Available on Amazon

“Colm Herron’s powerful yet subtle portrayal of the palpable grief, violence and unrest that stalked Northern Ireland in the late 1980s …. I am excited to see what he writes next”— Sheila Langan, Irish America, New York

 “A totally comic novel …. Further Adventures of James Joyce could just as easily be entitled The Further Writings of Flann O’Brien”— Morris Beja, James Joyce Quarterly, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Finally then there’s THE FABRICATOR – recently released. The first review has just been published.

“A delightful novel, fascinating, funny, sad and romantic. From its opening lines right through to its final pages The Fabricator is not like anything you have read before”— Kellie Chambers, Ulster Tatler

To learn more about the world of Colm Herron, check out his blog! You can find it at colmherron.com