A Nation Once Again

The hilarious new satire from the bestselling author of the Ross O'Carroll-Kelly series

‘Funny, smart. seriously thought-provoking' Joseph O'Connor

'Hilarious, bang-on, even slightly disturbing - everything I love about Paul Howard's writing.' Roddy Doyle

‘I absolutely LOVED A Nation Once Again. It was such a huge pleasure to read, I laughed out loud so many times. Paul Howard is a literal genius.’ Marian Keyes

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There’s only one idea more foolish than dividing Ireland – and that’s trying to put it back together again.

Meet 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.

Running 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.

Fiach can feel the hand of history upon his shoulder. He suspects it may soon throttle him.

Yet, against his better judgement — and all available evidence — a dangerous thought takes hold. What if he 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.

Dream on, Fiach.

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'Funny, smart and provocative, the scariest thing about this novel is that it might be based on fact.' John Boyne

‘Best thing he’s ever done – I am in awe’ Róisín Ingle

'Riotously funny with a cast of characters I was sad to leave.' Sarah Breen

‘It was well worth dividing Ireland in the first place for this brilliant book.’ Declan Lynch

'Expertly mines the North's sectarian granite to produce a masterpiece of fact and hilarity. I almost passed out.' Joe Brolly