Malachy Dudgeon has escaped the misery and madness of his childhood home and landed a job in the most famous school in Dublin. The headmaster, Raphael Bell, has overcome his own tragedies to forge a model career, but when Malachy Dudgeon and Raphael Bell meet, they become inextricably engaged in a macabre relationship which proves fatal to their fortunes and their sanity. ‘McCabe can make you howl at the darkest antics . . . He never sets a foot – or syllable – wrong. His novel is death on a laugh-support machine. Stupendous.’ Scotland on Sunday ‘Raphael, the great headmaster, is a marvellous creation . . . McCabe has a charm as a storyteller which is all his own’ Sunday Telegraph ‘Exhilarating. Reading the distilled gouts of consciousness which pour from the minds of these characters is like being trapped on a big dipper with articulate maniacs . . . Horribly funny’ The Times ‘An appallingly funny story . . . horribly memorable’ Times Literary Supplement