{"title":"David Keenan","description":"\u003cp\u003eDavid Keenan’s works offer a compelling blend of \u003cem\u003eGeneral Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eArts \u0026amp; Culture\u003c\/em\u003e, weaving narratives that explore the complexities of youth, memory, and artistic expression. His writing is marked by a vivid, lyrical style that immerses readers in rich, atmospheric storytelling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the introspective depths of \u003cstrong\u003eBoyhood\u003c\/strong\u003e to the evocative reflections in \u003cstrong\u003eThis Is Memorial Device\u003c\/strong\u003e, Keenan’s books invite readers to engage with themes of identity and creativity, making his work a distinctive journey through contemporary cultural landscapes.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"for-the-good-times-by-david-keenan-9780571340521","title":"For The Good Times","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBelfast, 1970s: Sammy and his three friends live in an impoverished area of the city that has become the epicentre of a country seemingly intent on cannibalising itself. They love sharp clothes, a good drink, and the songs of Perry Como, whose commitment to clean living holds up a dissonant mirror to their own attempts to rise above their circumstances.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThey dream of a Free State, and their methods for achieving this are uncompromising. But \u003ci\u003eFor the Good Times\u003c\/i\u003e is not just a novel about the IRA. It is about the heartbreak and devastation that commitment to 'the cause' can bring; of violence and betrayal, breakdown and rebirth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46544424141036,"sku":"9780571340521","price":23.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/11081323482391.jpg?v=1749774895"},{"product_id":"monument-maker-by-david-keenan-9781474617109","title":"Monument Maker","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eIs it possible for books to dream? For books to dream within books? Is there a literary subterranea that would facilitate ingress and exit points through these dreams?\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThese are some of the questions posed by David Keenan's masterly fifth novel, \u003ci\u003eMonument Maker\u003c\/i\u003e, an epic romance of eternal summer and a descent into history, into the horrors of the past. It is a novel with a sweep and range that runs from the siege of Khartoum and the conquest of Africa in the 19th century through the Second World War and up to the present day. Here, the memory of a single summer, and a love affair that took place across the cathedrals of Ile de France, unravels, as a secret initiatory cult is uncovered that has its roots in macabre experiments in cryptozoology in pre-war Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eMonument Maker\u003c\/i\u003e straddles genres while fully embracing none of them, a book within a book within a book that runs from hallucinatory historical epics through future-visioned histories of the world narrated by a horribly disfigured British soldier made prophetic by depths of suffering. It includes books that interact with Keenan's earlier novels, including a return to the mythical post-punk Airdrie landscape of his now classic debut, \u003ci\u003eThis Is Memorial Device\u003c\/i\u003e. Whole histories of art and religion, books that are glorious choral appendices, bibliographies, imagined films, tape recorded interviews; building to a jubilant accumulation of registers, voices, and rhythms that is truly Choral.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWritten over the course of 10 years, \u003ci\u003eMonument Maker\u003c\/i\u003e represents the apex of Keenan's project to create books that contain uncanny life and feel like living organisms. It is a meditation on art and religion, and on what it means to make a monument; this great longing for something eternal, something that could fix moments in time, forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46712822825196,"sku":"9781474617109","price":29.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/222823482713.jpg?v=1754306525"},{"product_id":"this-is-memorial-device-by-david-keenan-9780571330850","title":"This Is Memorial Device","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRoss Raymond and Johnny McLaughlin are two fanboys dedicated to the Airdrie post-punk scene of the early '80s – the glory years – when anything and everything seemed possible. Looking back on that time – the people, the bands, the underground legends – they piece together a story which has at its core \u003cem\u003eThis Is Memorial Device\u003c\/em\u003e, the greatest band you've never heard of.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFeaturing a cast of misfits, artists, drop-outs, small-town visionaries and musicians, \u003cem\u003eThis Is Memorial Device\u003c\/em\u003e is a dark, witty novel depicting a moment where art and the demands it makes are as serious as life itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46846747082988,"sku":"9780571330850","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/10984613482391.jpg?v=1758921519"},{"product_id":"xstabeth-by-david-keenan-9781474617062","title":"Xstabeth","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eINCLUDES 'PREQUEL' THE TOWER THE FIELDS THE TRANSMITTERS\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'This book spoke, it said \"read me\" from the very first sentence as if it were alive, it gave me visceral joy' - Kim Gordon\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Reading \u003ci\u003eXstabeth\u003c\/i\u003e feels like being cut open to the accompanying sound of ecstatic music' - Edna O'Brien\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘Prepare for more of that inimitable Keenan narrative voodoo brilliance’ - Wendy Erskine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn St Petersburg, Russia, Aneliya is torn between the love of her father and her father's best friend. Her father dreams of becoming a great musician but suffers with a naivete that means he will never be taken seriously. Her father's best friend has a penchant for vodka, strip clubs and moral philosophy.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhen an angelic presence named Xstabeth enters their lives - a presence who simultaneously fulfils and disappears those she touches - Aneliya and her father's world is transformed.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMoving from Russia to St Andrews, Scotland, \u003ci\u003eXstabeth\u003c\/i\u003e tackles the metaphysics of golf, the mindset of classic Russian novels and the power of art and music to re-wire reality. Charged with a consuming intensity and a torrential rhythm that pulses with music, it is an offering of transcendence and a love letter to the books of Chandler, Nabokov and Dostoevsky, by a writer who is rewriting the rulebook of contemporary fiction.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46847363186924,"sku":"9781474617062","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/222353482713.jpg?v=1758937718"},{"product_id":"boyhood-by-david-keenan-9781399625005","title":"Boyhood","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCult author David Keenan's most mature, magical and profoundly realised novel yet, centred on a young boy in Glasgow\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'Slaps our dull, sterile culture hard across the face with a studded, uncompromising literary glove' - \u003cb\u003eIRVINE WELSH\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'Reading Keenan is like reclaiming your own imagination' - \u003cb\u003eLIAS SAOUDI\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e'David Keenan is a wizard with words' - \u003cb\u003eBENJAMIN MYERS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBoyhood\u003c\/i\u003e opens in 1979 with the abduction of a young boy outside a Glasgow football ground. Nine years later, the boy's brother, Aaron Murray, is on the cusp of that moment when adolescence becomes adulthood. His own journey of grief and recovery has been guided by an angel, 'The Precious Gift' - perhaps imagined, perhaps real - who has blessed Aaron with redemptive, messianic powers. These have enabled him to see through the past and present, joining the dots between a vast array of characters; ballerinas, soldiers, poets, burlesque dancers, East End gangsters and the Vampire of Derry over five decades, all tied up in each other's fate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs Aaron's visions span cities and decades, from wartime Paris to the Troubles in the 1970s, Mexico City in the 1980s to - of course - Glasgow, \u003ci\u003eBoyhood\u003c\/i\u003e builds to an extraordinary, intense, climactic moment of redemption.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA book of great joy, of laughter in the face of horror and delight in storytelling by the beloved and critically acclaimed author of \u003ci\u003eThis Is Memorial Device\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBoyhood\u003c\/i\u003e is a hymn to the resilience of youth, to the brave dreams of artists and lovers and a love letter to Glasgow - a city where magic happens.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBoyhood\u003c\/i\u003e is a marvel. Impossible to sum up, it is a true novel, jumping with event and spectacle and showmanship - while speaking in its own extraordinary voice of tenderness and violence and pity and love, along with the gorgeous great fun and wonder of being alive' - \u003cb\u003eKIRSTY GUNN\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47521227178220,"sku":"9781399625005","price":37.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/1345293960466cac6c3af0c7a9798c5f.jpg?v=1776127192"},{"product_id":"volcanic-tongue-by-david-keenan-9781399624961","title":"Volcanic Tongue","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eVolcanic Tongue\u003c\/i\u003e presents the first ever collection of multi-award-winning author David Keenan's music writings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cq\u003eA thing of beauty\u003c\/q\u003e — \u003cb\u003eDAVID HOLMES\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cq\u003eA celebration of obsessives, misfits and single-minded outsider\u003c\/q\u003e — \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHERALD\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cq\u003eA colossal triumph\u003c\/q\u003e — \u003cb\u003eWENDY ERSKINE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eKeenan has been writing about music since publishing his first fanzine, inspired by The Pastels and by Glasgow (and Airdrie's) DIY music scene, in 1988. Since then, he has written about music for \u003ci\u003eMelody Maker, NME, Uncut, Mojo, The New York Times, Ugly Things, The Literary Review, The Social\u003c\/i\u003e and, most consistently, \u003ci\u003eThe Wire\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eVolcanic Tongue\u003c\/i\u003e was also the name of the record shop and mail order that Keenan ran with his partner, Heather Leigh, in Glasgow from 2005–2015.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eVolcanic Tongue\u003c\/i\u003e features the best of his reviews, interviews and think pieces, with exclusive in-depth conversations between Keenan and Nick Cave, members of legendary industrial bands Coil and Throbbing Gristle, krautrock legends like Faust, Shirley Collins, the first lady of English folk, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, German auto-destructives Einsturzende Neubauten, as well as discographical analysis of the back catalogues of groups like Sonic Youth and musicians like John Fahey. It includes extensive writings on free jazz and obsessive in-depth digs into favourites like Pere Ubu, Metal Box-era Public Image Ltd, Sun Ra, guitarist and vocalist John Martyn, and many more. It is an essential addition to any music fan's bookshelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis first collection of his legendary criticism functions as an extended love letter to the revolutionary music of the 20th century and the incredible culture that sustained it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47933359685868,"sku":"9781399624961","price":29.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781399624961-volcanic-tongue.jpg?v=1783868985"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/david-keenan.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}