Danny Boy

I want to be famous, to do something so big and special the whole fuckin' world sits up gobsmacked. But I don't know how to swing it.Danny MacIntyre, a natural leader of men and still only nineteen. A drug habit financed by expert thieving, and a girlfriend on every street corner. Doncaster's favourite son.But on a Tuesday afternoon, beneath the overcast skies of sunny Donny something very nasty happens. A strange-looking bundle is found floating on the oily surface of the canal. Mutilated beyond belief, the boy didn't die quickly. Danny recognizes Gibbsey's handiwork. Gibbsey and the police would both like to have a chat with Danny. In the time-honoured tradition of Donny deadbeats, Danny legs it to London, accompanied by his marrers, Dekka and Chico Latino.The Donny lads hit the London underworld looking for drugs and escape from Gibbsey and his satanic cohorts. Away from the land of his birth, Danny wonders if he's losing it. Some fat bloke with a funny haircut keeps talking to him in riddles, and there's another one - tall, blond and worryingly camp - who's forever whispering in Danny's ear. But most of all there's Eleanor, with the moon at her feet and stars in her hair.An allegory for modern times, Danny Boy is a remarkable achievement from a major new literary talent. This is storytelling at its very best, a compelling and absorbing read, shocking, uplifting and unstoppable. And in Danny Jo-Ann Goodwin has created an urban hero of remarkable stature.