Skippy Dies

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2010

A triumph. Brimful of wit and narrative energySunday Times

Novels rarely come as funny and as moving as this. One of the finest comic novels written anywhereIrish Times

Ruprecht Van Doren is an overweight genius whose hobbies include very difficult maths and the Search of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Daniel Skippy Juster is his roommate. In the grand old Dublin institution that is Seabrook College for Boys, nobody pays either of them much attention. But when Skippy falls for Lori, the frisbee-playing siren from the girls school next door, suddenly all kinds of people take an interest - including Carl, part-time drug-dealer and official school psychopath. . .

A tragic comedy of epic sweep and dimension, Skippy Dies scours the corners of the human heart and wrings every drop of pathos, humour and hopelessness out of life, love, Robert Graves, mermaids, M-theory, and everything in between.

An unforgettably exuberant saga set in an Irish boys school. The insulting repartee is Shakespearean, the minor characters hilarious, and Murray captures the fleeting joys and lasting sorrows of adolescence perfectlyDaily Telegraph

The sprawling brilliance of Paul Murrays darkly comic second novel works on many different levels... When you finish the last page, you may be tempted to start all over againMetro