The Coward

by Jarred McGinnis

Overview

A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK

After a car accident Jarred discovers he'll never walk again. Confined to a 'giant roller-skate', he finds himself with neither money nor job, a shoplifting habit, an addiction to painkillers and strangers treating him like he's an idiot. Worse still, he's forced to live back home with his estranged father.

Trying to piece himself together, Jarred comes to realise that things don't have to stay broken after all. The Coward is about hurt and forgiveness, how the world treats disabled people, and how we write and rewrite the stories we tell ourselves about our lives - and try to find a happy ending.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781838851545
Publisher:	Canongate Books
Publication date:	04/18/2023
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Jarred McGinnis is the co-founder of The Special Relationship, which was chosen for the British Council's International Literature Showcase. His short fiction has been commissioned for BBC Radio 4 and appeared in literary journals in the UK, Canada, USA and Ireland. He is an Associate Writer for Spread the Word, a fellow of the London Library's Emerging Writer Programme and a Writer-in-Residence for First Story. He also has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence, but mostly he inspires the able-bodied by using public transport and taking his daughters to the playground.

@JarredMcGinnis | jarredmcginnis.com

Editorial Reviews

A story about stoicism, but also about what happens when you come apart in a very ugly way. A bold and brilliant novel

From the Publisher

Black comedy alternates with fragile tenderness in this vivid and fiercely honest novel

Daily Mail

02/14/2022

McGinnis’s promising debut chronicles the experiences of a newly disabled man as he reconnects with his father. The protagonist, also named Jarred McGinnis, is paralyzed by a car accident that took the life of his ex-girlfriend Melissa, who by then was married to another man. Jarred reluctantly returns home to his widowed father, Jack, a recovering alcoholic, and grapples with feelings of depression. Memories of his late mother swirl with his shame about the accident and being disabled, and Jarred deploys some very funny dark humor to combat his pain, such as claiming he was injured while serving in Vietnam, despite being far too young. Jarred eventually finds love with Sarah, who works at a local donut shop, and gets a job, but these positive developments don’t quite get him on solid ground. Jarred’s anguish runs deep, and extended flashbacks to his past—which include a stay in a psychiatric hospital—flesh out his sorrowful character. While McGinnis excavates the harm Jack’s anger caused Jarred as a teen, contemporary scenes such as a touching heart-to-heart show the men as being capable of tenderness. And, as Jarred observes, “a father’s pride is food for any boy.” It’s a bit overstuffed, though McGinnis manages to keep it engaging even during the woolly parts. Overall, this story of healing makes for a worthy debut. Agent: Will Francis, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Topics discussed in the book include shoplifting and painkiller addictions, bullying and self-destruction. But it’s also a story of hope

Sarasota Magazine

Written with insight and savage wit . . . it is uplifting because McGinnis is a realist who never tries to sweeten the bitter experience of learning to navigate life in a wheelchair. His characters are vivid and impossible to forget, and he has an underlying optimism about the various ways in which muddled lives shake down and settle into something better

The Times

Such a tonic. Funny, honest, moving – meticulously researched. I’m learning loads. I think it will help a lot of people

NATHAN FILER

I hope The Coward helps people recognize that it's OK to be broken and beauty, hope, and humor reside even in the darkest moments of our lives

Writer’s Digest

Starting from a place of pure tragedy, this is actually a book which works its way to joy . . . uplifting . . . a rare treat . . . Jarred McGinnis has created a host of fascinating, involving and relatable characters in the middle of a riveting and often hilarious story

Bookmunch

Laceratingly funny, beautiful and true, true, true - right into its very human and very twisted heart. Read this book

A.L. KENNEDY

This beautiful book is a testament to the way people can, in spite of everything, reforge shattered emotional bonds and repair seemingly doomed relationships. You won't find a more uplifting read in these dark times

IRVINE WELSH

Brutal, tender, moving and funny. Life as a novel

C.D. ROSE

Efficient, bracing and bleakly comic

New Statesman

Both absolutely devastating and ridiculously funny, sometimes within the span of a single paragraph. You'll want to murder McGinnis' mouthy anti-hero and also take him out for several pints. A big-hearted, quick-witted sucker punch of a first novel; readers who like their brutal honesty with a side of hope are really going to love The Coward

JAN CARSON

While critics refer to “The Coward” as a work about redemption and salvation, Robert McGinnis sees the story of his son’s recovery after the auto accident as more of a love story

Herald Tribune

Reviewers have singled out McGinnis’s ability to mine the story for black comedy amidst the pathos

LOA

I wanted my novel, The Coward, to undercut the triumph-over-adversity trope and the inspiration porn clichés that publishing expects from stories about disability

LitHub

Riotously funny . . . the book is also a testament to our ability to forgive

Big Issue

A raw and unflinching look at a broken father-son relationship. At times viscerally honest but always gripping as the difficult journey to redemption and hope takes place against a backdrop of addiction, recrimination and an emotionally troubled history. Jarred McGinnis finds truth and humour in the brutal honesty that makes for a compelling read

MARK STRONG

Sings from its first lines . . . unbearably poignant . . . a truly uplifting emotional journey; a tender, wise, brutally funny novel

Guardian

This energetic novel about the fractured relationship between an estranged father and son. . . is powered by grimly, cynical wit

The Zoomer Bookclub

Visceral yet immensely witty . . . The sections describing the immediate aftermath of the crash are incredibly powerful

Herald