Pure Gold

JOHN PATRICK MCHUGH is from Galway. His work has appeared in Banshee, Granta, Stinging Fly, Tangerine and Winter Papers. Pure Gold is his debut collection.

‘This astonishing collection of stories draws the reader into a world at once familiar and deliciously strange … John Patrick McHugh is one of the most exciting writers working in Ireland today’ Sally Rooney, author of Normal People‘A remarkable, rare and truly brilliant collection’ Megan Nolan, author of Acts of Desperation‘Ireland produces writers the way some countries produce footballers, and the latest is John Patrick McHugh’ Sunday Times ‘This is a terrific collection. The stories are dark, funny, honest and engrossing’ Roddy Doyle, author of Love‘Refreshing and ambitious … stories full of heart and balls and mischief’ Lisa McInerney, author of The Blood Miracles‘McHugh’s stories are full of stylish brio, headlong with energy, and pulse with real feeling and depth. He is a young writer forging a fresh and intense new path through the landscape of Irish letters’ Colin Barrett, author of Young Skins‘McHugh writes very tenderly about people, and very vibrantly about place. Pure Gold describes the dull lives of a splendid island, in prose that is always splendid and never dull’ Sara Baume, author of A Line Made By Walking‘Sharp, savage, feral stories. Pure Gold is utterly engrossing and unafraid. From the broken world of masculinity and prejudice, John Patrick McHugh has wrought a precious, beautiful alchemy’ Sean Hewitt, author of Tongues of Fire‘Emotionally intelligent and savagely funny … Pure Gold is a striking literary debut’ Nicole Flattery, author of Show Them A Good Time‘John Patrick McHugh is a wildly ambitious craftsman, and such a thrilling writer of sentences’ Danny Denton, author of The Earlie King & the Kid in Yellow