Michael Magee's debut novel Close To Home narrowly missed out on the Waterstones debut novel of the year award
Michael Magee released Close To Home to both critical acclaim and widespread success and has now spoken about being nominated for the Waterstones debut novel of the year award.
"Most of his mates have left and gone to Australia or America for work. The few that haven't been left behind are working jobs that don’t pay a lot of money. They are disillusioned and discontented, and their outlet for this discontent, or their mode of coping, is to take drugs and party and get into all sorts of trouble. Sean falls into these habits himself, and one night, at a house party, he gets into an argument and assaults this lad.
"Jobs are low paid, rents are sky high, and people are struggling to find any degree of stability in their lives. That’s what Sean’s story is about. He’s trying to get his life together, but there are all these barriers preventing that from happening. People feel that. They’ve lived through it themselves. And Sean isn’t blameless by any stretch. He’s as troubled and difficult as anybody, and he gets in his own way all the time, but his intentions are good. He wants to be good.
"Changing the character’s name from Mick to Sean opened up that distance. That’s when I started to see Sean as another person, someone who was both me and not me at the same time, and that opened up all sorts of possibilities for what the book could be." Close To Home has been hugely successful critically, being nominated and just narrowly missing out on the Waterstones Debut Novel of the year award. Michael said it was, “an incredible thing to be a part of".
“I think stories set in Belfast are as important as stories set anywhere. We live in a city filled with stories, and we have to be the people who articulate them. Because if we don’t somebody else will, and we can’t allow that to happen. Not anymore," he added.
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