{"product_id":"9781844886906-nation-once-again","title":"A Nation Once Again","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe hilarious new satire from the bestselling author of the \u003ci\u003eRoss O'Carroll-Kelly \u003c\/i\u003eseries\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Funny, smart. seriously thought-provoking' \u003cb\u003eJoseph O'Connor\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Hilarious, bang-on, even slightly disturbing - everything I love about Paul Howard's writing.' \u003cb\u003eRoddy Doyle\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘I absolutely LOVED \u003ci\u003eA Nation Once Again\u003c\/i\u003e. It was such a huge pleasure to read, I laughed out loud so many times. Paul Howard is a literal genius.’\u003cb\u003e Marian Keyes\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e---\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThere’s only one idea more foolish than dividing Ireland – and that’s trying to put it back together again.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMeet Fiach O’Bric: career diplomat, recent widower, and a man looking forward to a peaceful retirement. But just when he thinks he's out, he is strong-armed into taking over a shadowy top-secret department tasked with preparing for a United Ireland — a job so surreal it makes his last posting, in Beijing, seem like a Buddhist retreat.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRunning the Department with Responsibility for Making Arrangements for the Unification of Ireland, an outfit quietly failing since 1958, Fiach finds himself managing a team of oddballs, timeservers, and a die-hard nationalist from Dundalk. And he spends his days refereeing rows about everything everyone has failed to agree for about 800 years, as well as absurd new suggestions – like conjuring a capital city that nobody actually wants. In Westmeath. Nothing is too crazy to be proposed, nor too sensible to be rejected.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFiach can feel the hand of history upon his shoulder. He suspects it may soon throttle him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet, against his better judgement — and all available evidence — a dangerous thought takes hold. What if \u003ci\u003ehe\u003c\/i\u003e could be the one to do what Tone, Pearse and centuries of Irish martyrs failed to do: make Ireland one, and somehow not die in the process.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDream on, Fiach.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e---\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Funny, smart and provocative, the scariest thing about this novel is that it might be based on fact.' \u003cb\u003eJohn Boyne\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘Best thing he’s ever done – I am in awe’\u003cb\u003e Róisín Ingle\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Riotously funny with a cast of characters I was sad to leave.' \u003cb\u003eSarah Breen\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘It was well worth dividing Ireland in the first place for this brilliant book.’ \u003cb\u003eDeclan Lynch\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Expertly mines the North's sectarian granite to produce a masterpiece of fact and hilarity. I almost passed out.'\u003cb\u003e Joe Brolly\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57684711702902,"sku":"9781844886906","price":13.48,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_41026637.jpg?v=1777006388","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781844886906-nation-once-again","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}