In this “supernaturally skilled debut” (Vanity Fair), a charming ne’er-do-well returns to his haunted Irish hometown to uncover the truth about his mother, turning the town—and his life—upside down.
HIMSELF by Jess Kidd
Washington Square Press | ISBN: 9781501145186 | On sale: October 10, 2017 | 384 pages | $16.00
eBook: Atria | ISBN: 9781501145193 | On sale: March 14, 2017 | 384 pages | $10.99
Abandoned on the steps of an orphanage as an infant in 1950, Dublin charmer Mahony assumed all his life that his mother had simply given him up. But when he receives an anonymous note suggesting that foul play may have led to her disappearance, he sees only one option: to return to the rural Irish village where he was born and find out what really happened twenty-six years earlier. In HIMSELF, Jess Kidd delivers a black-humored mystery, a debut novel populated with colorful characters, a simmering blend of the natural and the supernatural, and in homage to her roots, a generous dose of quintessentially Irish humor.
From the moment he sets foot in Mulderrig, Mahony’s presence turns the village upside down. His uncannily familiar face and outsider ways cause a stir amongst the locals, who receive him with a mixture of curiosity, suspicion, and excitement. Determined to uncover the truth, Mahony solicits the help of brash, retired actress Mrs. Cauley, and together, the improbable duo concoct a plan to get the town talking, aided and abetted by a cast of characters, some from beyond the grave. As flashbacks unravel the mysterious circumstances of Mahony’s mother’s disappearance, the investigation incurs the wrath of sanctimonious Father Quinn and the Widow Farelly, unsettling the village, provoking cases of letter bombs and poisoned scones. What begins as a personal mission gradually becomes a quiet revolution: a young man and his town uniting against corruption, against those who seek to quash the sinister tides of progress and modernity come hell or high water. But what those people seem to keep forgetting is that Mahony has the dead on his side…
PRAISE FOR HIMSELF:
“[A] fast-paced yarn that nimbly soars above the Irish crime fiction genre Kidd clearly knows very well.”
—New York Times Book Review
“In her exceptional debut novel, Kidd explores the dark corners of the human mind in small-town 1970s Ireland, creating a haunting story that moves between the supernatural and the mundane. A murder mystery on the surface, the story digs past the traditional whodunit structure to paint a rich portrait of village life... While the plot hurtles along at a rapid pace, leading inexorably to the heart-pounding final conflict, Kidd injects ample doses of macabre humor and lyrical description in this memorable story from a strange, bold new voice.”
—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
“Over in Dublin, Jess Kidd’s Himself is her supernaturally skillful debut. Irish eyes are glowing.”
—Vanity Fair
“For the love of all that’s right and true in the world, you’ve got to read Jess Kidd’s debut Himself (Atria), a fabulously imaginative, darkly comic Irish tale set 'in the arse-end of beyond' in a village called Mulderigg. Reading this picaresque novel is like nursing a pint in a pub while a seanchaí, a traditional storyteller, trills the air with magic and mystery and a local modulates the narrative with irreverent commentary from a stool in the corner...In Mahony, the author has created a literary descendant of Henry Fielding’s ‘Tom Jones’ (also a foundling with parental issues), and in Mulderigg she’s imagined a literary neighborhood akin to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Macondo, a place populated with eccentric characters, living and dead. The plot races to an ending of Biblical proportions (as most Irish tales do) and it’ll bring tears to your sorry eyes and joy to your hardened heart.”
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Every page of Kidd’s who-done-it novel is filled with magic, spirit, peppery characters, and ghosts of the village dead, including their pets, who are visible only to some... Kidd mixes the darkest capacities of these villagers with carefully observed whimsy and fantasy. Readers who enjoy a dollop of whiskey in their tea will feel right at home in Mulderrig.”
—Booklist
FIND JESS KIDD ONLINE:
Website: www.jesskidd.com
Twitter: @JessKiddHerself
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jess Kidd is an award-winning author with a PhD in creative writing from St. Mary’s University in London. She grew up as part of a large family from western Ireland’s County Mayo and now lives in London with her daughter. Jess loves tea, bees, dogs, writing about ghosts, and smiling at strangers (in moderation). Himself, her first novel, was shortlisted for the Irish Book Award. Her second novel, The Hoarder, will be published in May 2018. Learn more at JessKidd.com.
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