The hard shoulder

'A former hard-man. O'Grady, returns after ten years in prison to the shabby part of North London where he used to live. Over the past decade. London has changed at a pace he finds difficult to cope with. The Irish community to which he once belonged has moved out of the area and many of the crooks and drinkers who were his friends have eased themselves into respectable middle age. As O'Grady comes to realize the extent of the gulf between himself and the world around him, he becomes more and more isolated... Chris Petit writes with confidence. inviting the reader to breathe the smoke and smell of stale beer in a marginal and hopeless world... he writes to great effect of the anger and loneliness of a man adrift in a world he does not recognize' Times Literary Supplement.