Publishers Weekly
05/13/2024
A London heat wave and a whale stuck in the Thames form the backdrop of McKenna’s stimulating first novel. The narrative unfolds over a pivotal weekend in the lives of a group of friends, as the oppressive weather and crowds of tourists exacerbate their stress over their uncertain futures. Maggie, 30, worries her pregnancy will put a strain on her relationship with Ed and complicate their planned return to their Essex hometown. Ed, in turn, is excited to get away from his dead-end courier job and start a family with Maggie, though he’s also secretly having anonymous sex with men. Ed once carried on a relationship with Maggie’s friend, Phil, who’s falling in love with Keith, one of his roommates in an illegal warehouse loft. The characters’ precariousness is frequently and cleverly laid bare through the presence of the whale, whose ordeal is tied by many to climate change, and the narrative boldly explores themes of sexuality, shame, and miscommunication. McKenna’s ornate tapestry is one to savor. Agent: Liv Maidment, Madeleine Milburn Literary. (July)
From the Publisher
"This sparkling first novel focuses on the intertwined lives of three Londoners and their friends and family, largely over the course of a single weekend in June 2019...In another pair of hands, the compressed timeline and the size of the cast could have made for a disjointed reading experience, but McKenna toggles among the different characters and storylines with aplomb. What emerges is an empathetic portrait of millennials trying to build lives for themselves amid social, political, and ecological change...A smart debut that feels rooted in the experiences of a generation and establishes McKenna as a gifted writer." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"This vivid realist novel adroitly maneuvers a sprawling interlocking cast around the hipster haunts of north and east London, including Kingsland Road, London Fields and the Hampstead Heath swimming ponds…His electric, broadbrush vignettes of urban life recall Kae Tempest’s novel The Bricks That Built the Houses and Vivian Gornick’s memoirs. For even as it utters a howl of rage at broken, late-capitalist Britain, Evenings and Weekends is a love letter to the city – the chance it offers to forge your own identity, and the interconnectedness of urban life. A tender portrait of contemporary queer London." — The Guardian
"A bit like the book version of a Richard Curtis film, but with more grit, more bathroom sex and a literal beached whale." — GQ
“This is such a love story to cities & people & heartbreaks, death & loss. It's not at all corny, it's smart. But I just finished it & it made me cry.” — Eileen Myles
"McKenna’s ornate tapestry is one to savor." — Publishers Weekly
"A masterpiece: this searing tale of class, love and sex will resonate for generations to come." — Owen Jones
"The aching, swelling humanity of this book swallowed me whole." — Saba Sams, author of Send Nudes
“The characters in Evenings and Weekends are almost shockingly alive. I was fascinated by the mix of zeitgeisty humor, wisdom, and existential angst. I have never read a book that captures what London feels like to young people quite so compellingly.” — Tomasz Jedrowski, author of Swimming in the Dark
“Evenings and Weekends dives into the heart of a city and its inhabitants with beauty and intellect. The result is a novel brimming with life, confronting the difficult and ugly with a fresh and charming levity. I can’t wait to read what McKenna writes next.” — Nicola Dinan, author of Bellies
"This book was a thrill. Zadie Smith-esque in its kaleidoscope of London and incisively political but only in the most generous, specific, and lived-in way; That Oisín can write a book so steeped in identity politics and yet so casually chaotic and real is a testament to his imaginative generosity and sense of scale. I could go on and on and on. Compassionate, intelligent, hilarious. This book will win prizes. I enjoyed it so much." — Niamh Campbell, author of This Happy, winner of the Rooney Fiction Prize
"‘I tore through Evenings and Weekends, a story which is full of life and rings with passion and hope. A brilliant study of the sins of modern Britain and the energy of contemporary London." — Soula Emmanuel, author of Wild Geese
"Summer is almost upon us. By the end of it… Evenings and Weekends, will surely be a much-thumbed book atop many bedside stacks and best-of lists. With it, yet another brilliant Irish voice announces their presence in contemporary literature…Intoxicating… Evenings and Weekends is a wonderful, almost engulfing reading experience." — Irish Times
"McKenna’s book captures what it feels like to be worn out by the constant calculations, and adjustments and uncertainties that so often underpin a London life." — Independent
"Evenings and Weekends is a novel of sincere belief in the possibilities of the future, a manifesto calling us to bring our voices into the chorus of modern life. With sparkling prose and tender attention to everyday detail, Oisín McKenna brings us deep into the tangled lives of parents, children, lovers and friends who, despite the struggle to survive in the twenty-first century metropolis, persist in their demand for pleasure, joy, and love." — Allen Bratton, author of Henry Henry
"The book of the summer." — Dazed
"The novel of the summer…this year’s great London novel… a precise and wise treatise on being late twenties in the capital." — Evening Standard (London)
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2024-05-17
As a soon-to-be mom braces for major life changes, her best friend wrestles with a secret that could have enormous implications for the pregnancy.
This sparkling first novel focuses on the intertwined lives of three Londoners and their broader networks of friends and family, largely over the course of a single weekend in June 2019. Thirty-year-old art school graduate Maggie, her longtime boyfriend, Ed, and her best friend, Phil, have known each other since they were kids running around Basildon, a working-class town 40 minutes away by train; Ed’s mother and Phil’s parents are neighbors, and Phil’s older brother is Ed’s best friend. When Maggie tells Phil one Saturday that she’s pregnant and that she and Ed are moving back to Basildon to prepare for the baby, he doesn’t react the way she expects, but not for the reason she thinks. For Phil, the news rekindles a decade-old moral dilemma. Much as Phil has tried to put the past behind him, he knows something about Ed that Maggie doesn’t—a secret so big it could threaten Ed and Maggie’s relationship. With the impending addition of a baby to the mix, he feels more compelled than ever to reveal the truth. Concurrently, other problems arise in their peripheral social circle and beyond. Ed battles private demons. Phil’s older brother and Ed’s best friend, Callum, disappears. Phil and Callum’s mother, Rosaleen, is trying to figure out the best way to disclose her cancer diagnosis to Phil. Phil is sorting out his feelings for his housemate and hookup partner, Keith, who’s in an open relationship with another man, Louis. Things come to a head at a massive party held at Phil’s warehouse commune home on Saturday night in honor of the summer solstice. In another pair of hands, the compressed timeline and the size of the cast could have made for a disjointed reading experience, but McKenna toggles among the different characters and storylines with aplomb. What emerges is an empathetic portrait of millennials trying to build lives for themselves amid social, political, and ecological change.
A smart debut that feels rooted in the experiences of a generation and establishes McKenna as a gifted writer.
