Sean O'Reilly's debut novel is a journey inside the dark psyche of Niall, a young man on the run from the past and denying himself a future. Arriving in Derry, years after he left for a wandering life, Niall finds that very little has changed. The streets are still blighted by sectarian violence and the grubby pubs still cater for the lost and lonely. Just as his memories, fears or desires threaten to consume him, Niall enters into a complicated relationship, with Lorna, a committed socialist with a dark side of her own. Haunted by a past that only gradually gives up its secrets and insensate for most of the time through a cocktail of booze and drugs. Niall lives his life to extremes, testing and pushing himself ever closer to destruction. Love and Sleep confirms O'Reilly's rising reputation as a writer of rare lyrical power and urgency.