Troubles to be satirised in new novel
The Northern Ireland Troubles are to be laid bare in a satirical new novel in which the protagonist assassinates politicians and paramilitary leaders with the acquiescence of state officials. Woundlicker is the first novel by former journalist Jason Johnson, who has covered many of the killings in Northern Ireland. "Woundlicker is a story without heroes set in a city where there are far too many," Johnson told The Independent on Sunday. "It's the tale of a young man who has fallen through the sectarian cracks.He decides to take on those responsible for the Troubles by employing violent means."Johnson believes his novel, published this week by Blackstaff (£6.99), will strike a chord with those who are fed up with sectarianism, but he also says it will make for uncomfortable reading for politicians and terrorist leaders.
Greg Harkin
source - http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/ulster/article318230.ece
‘Belfast came up with the Titanic, the Troubles, the car bomb, kneecapping, Ulster fries and big fucken sinks. What the fuck is all that about? I mean, it’s been great for churches and off-licences and journalists and all, but that’s it.’
Maverick misfit Fletcher Fee is being recorded. And he's got a lot to say. Incensed by attacks on ‘Wee Blondie’, his teenage neighbour, and by the senseless murder of his only friend, Karim, Fee responds with increasingly violent acts of revenge that threaten to derail the uneasy peace process in Northern Ireland.Living on the edge, Fee moves invisibly through a gritty post-ceasefire Belfast, confounding the police and paramilitaries and exposing a dark network of lies and collusion. But how far will the mysterious authorities let him go? And why?
A monologue presented in the form of a classified British government report, Jason Johnson’s Woundlicker is a page-turning thriller from an exciting new voice in Irish fiction.
source - http://www.blackstaffpress.com/catalogue/more.asp?book=197
Jason Johnson
Thursday 13th October 6PM
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No Alibis Bookstore, Belfast are happy to invite you to the launch of Jason Johnson's new novel, Woundlicker, on Thursday 13th October 2005 at 6PM.
Jason Johnson was born in Enniskillen in 1969 and has lived in Belfast, England and the USA. He has been a barman, a shoe-salesman, a car washer, a supermarket employee, a waiter, a courier, a chair-ride operator, an apprentice stonemason, and a painter and decorator. As a freelance journalist, he worked for the Irish News and Belfast Telegraph before taking the News Editor position at the Irish Sunday People, which he left in 2004. He lives in Belfast. He currently describes himself as a writer.
If you would like to attend this book launch, email David or call 9031 9607 to reserve your spot.
source - http://www.noalibis.com/
