Getting It In the Head: Stories

Written by Mike McCormack

Narrated by Roger Clark and Esther Wane

Originally published in 1996, the first book from the author of Booker-listed Solar Bones is a dark, uncanny collection of stunning breadth and audacity.

In this gothic, virtuoso debut collection (a New York Times Notable Book), Mike McCormack dispenses nightmares both stylish and macabre. "A Is for Ax" offers alphabetized look at the killing of a parent, while the title story tracks a chilling sibling rivalry. Other works here offer multiple-quiz on the road to Calvary, a door-to-door saleswoman trafficking in strange and menacing feats, and a self-mutilating artist pushing himself to the limit. These sly and dangerous stories show us a young writer who was already a master of wicked formal play, and whose sly takes on life and death remain profoundly unsettling.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Release date: Apr 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781696604499

Mike McCormack

Mike McCormack is an award-winning novelist and short-story writer whose work includes Getting it in the Head, Crowe’s Requiem, Notes from a Coma, and Forensic Songs. In 1996 he was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His last novel, Solar Bones (Tramp Press, 2016), won the Goldsmiths Prize, the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards for Best Novel and for Best Book, and the Dublin International Literary Award (previously known as the IMPAC). He was nominated for a slew of other awards, including the Booker Prize.