Meet Pat McNab, forty-five years old, often to be found endlessly puffing smokes and propping up the counter of Sullivan's Select Bar or sitting on his mother's knee, both of them singing away together like some ridiculous two-headed human juke box. But that was all before the story really begins. Emerald Germs of Ireland is, in essence, Pat McNab's post-matricide year.

This is another great romp from the master of black comedy.

`Emerald Germs is an extraordinary confection. Melancholy, nasty, and extremely funny' Jane Shilling, Sunday Telegraph

`A mesmerising, disturbing and sometimes wildly funny book' Carolyn Hart, Marie Claire, Book of the Month