MAY BOOK CLUB

MA Book Club is the perfect chance to dive into discussion about some of the most contemporary and diverse literature out today. It's incredibly casual, a couple of hours once a month to chat, meet new people, have a glass of wine and read some great new books.

You can opt in, and opt out, each month - we will announce each month's title the month before, and you can buy your spot when it comes up on the website. Each month is £15, which includes your copy of the book AND your first drink completely free on the night. You can pop in and buy your book directly from the shop, or we can deliver.

If you would like you book copy delivered, please let us know by popping us an email at zoe@manningtreearts.com.

If you would like your book collected from the shop, you don't need to do anything, your book will be available to pick up anytime from the following day.

CLOSE TO HOME

Michael Magee

While growing up in West Belfast, Sean does every­thing he's supposed to do. He works hard, he studies, and he - mostly - stays out of trouble. The thirty-year conflict is over, he's told, and his future is lit with promise. But when Sean returns home from university, he finds much of the same-the same friends doing the same gear in the same clubs; the same lost broth­ers and mad fathers; the same closed doors; the same silences. There are no jobs, Sean's degree isn't worth the paper it's written on, and no one will give him the time of day. One night, he assaults a stranger at a party, and everything begins to come undone. Close to Home begins with this sudden act of violence and expands into a startling portrait of working-class Ireland under the long shadow of the Troubles. It's a first novel drawn from life, written with the immediacy of thought. It's about what happens when men get desperate, about the cycles of loss and trauma and secrecy that keep them trapped, and about the struggle to get free.