A Nation Once Again

<b>The hilarious new satire from the bestselling author of the <i>Ross O''Carroll-Kelly </i>series</b><br><br>‘Funny, smart. seriously thought-provoking'' <b>Joseph O''Connor</b><br><br>''Hilarious, bang-on, even slightly disturbing - everything I love about Paul Howard''s writing.'' <b>Roddy Doyle</b><br><br>‘I absolutely LOVED <i>A Nation Once Again</i>. It was such a huge pleasure to read, I laughed out loud so many times. Paul Howard is a literal genius.’<b> Marian Keyes</b><br><br><b>---</b><br><br><i>There’s only one idea more foolish than dividing Ireland – and that’s trying to put it back together again.</i><br><br>Meet Fiach O’Bric: career diplomat, recent widower, and a man looking forward to a peaceful retirement. But just when he thinks he''s out, he is strong-armed into taking over a shadowy top-secret department tasked with preparing for a United Ireland — a job so surreal it makes his last posting, in Beijing, seem like a Buddhist retreat.<br><br>Running the Department with Responsibility for Making Arrangements for the Unification of Ireland, an outfit quietly failing since 1958, Fiach finds himself managing a team of oddballs, timeservers, and a die-hard nationalist from Dundalk. And he spends his days refereeing rows about everything everyone has failed to agree for about 800 years, as well as absurd new suggestions – like conjuring a capital city that nobody actually wants. In Westmeath. Nothing is too crazy to be proposed, nor too sensible to be rejected.<br><br>Fiach can feel the hand of history upon his shoulder. He suspects it may soon throttle him.<br><br>Yet, against his better judgement — and all available evidence — a dangerous thought takes hold. What if <i>he</i> could be the one to do what Tone, Pearse and centuries of Irish martyrs failed to do: make Ireland one, and somehow not die in the process.<br><br>Dream on, Fiach.<br><br><b>---</b><br><br>''Funny, smart and provocative, the scariest thing about this novel is that it might be based on fact.'' <b>John Boyne</b><br><br>‘Best thing he’s ever done – I am in awe’<b> Róisín Ingle</b><br><br>''Riotously funny with a cast of characters I was sad to leave.'' <b>Sarah Breen</b><br><br>‘It was well worth dividing Ireland in the first place for this brilliant book.’ <b>Declan Lynch</b><br><br>''Expertly mines the North''s sectarian granite to produce a masterpiece of fact and hilarity. I almost passed out.''<b> Joe Brolly</b>