To New York and back — author returns to promote debut novel
Dublin-born writer Kevin Holohan (pictured) returns this month to his native shores from Brooklyn, where he now lives with his wife and son, to promote his debut novel, The Brothers’ Lot. Holohan is a graduate of UCD and a veteran of a high school education at the hands of the Christian Brothers in Dublin. His short stories have been published in Cyphers, the Sunday Tribune, and, most recently, in Whispers and Shouts. His poetry has been published in Studies, Casablanca, Envoi, and Poetry Ireland. For two years he was reader for the literary department of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
The Brothers’ Lot is a comic satire that tells the story of the Brothers of Godly Coercion School for Young Boys of Meagre Means, a dilapidated Dickensian institution run by an assemblage of eccentric, insane, and often nasty celibate Brothers. The school is in decline and the Brothers hunger for a miracle to move their founder, the Venerable Saorseach O’Rahilly, along the path to Sainthood.
When a possible miracle presents itself, the Brothers fervently seize on it with the help of the ethically pliant Diocesan Investigator, himself hungry for a miracle to boost his career – but as the miracle unravels, the Brothers’ efforts to preserve it unleash a disastrous chain of events.
Tackling a serious subject from the oblique viewpoint of satire, The Brothers’ Lot explores the culture that allowed abuses within church-run institutions in Ireland to go unchecked for decades.
The Brothers’ Lot is published on June 16 by UK indie publisher, No Exit Press, price €9.99.