- Oisín McKenna

Evenings and Weekends

By Oisín McKenna

‘ZADIE SMITH-ESQUE IN ITS KALEIDOSCOPE OF LONDON’ NIAMH CAMPBELL

‘A MASTERPIECE. THIS SEARING TALE OF LOVE, SEX AND CLASS WILL RESONATE FOR GENERATIONS TO COME’ OWEN JONES

Summer in London stops for no-one. Not the half-naked boozers, stoners, and cruisers, the hen parties glugging from bejewelled bottles, the drag queens puffing on hurried fags. It’s June 2019, and everyone has converged on the city’s parks, beer gardens and street corners to revel in the collective joys of being alive.

Everyone but Maggie. She’s 30, pregnant and broke. Faced with moving back to the town she fought to escape, she’s wondering if having a baby with boyfriend Ed will be the last spontaneous act of her life. Ed, meanwhile, is trying to run from his past with Maggie’s best friend Phil and harbouring secret dreams of his own.

Phil hates his office job and is living for the weekend, while falling for his housemate, Keith. But there’s a problem: Keith has a boyfriend and there might not be room for three people in the relationship. Then there’s Rosaleen, Phil’s mother, who’s tired of feeling like a side character in her own life. She’s just been diagnosed with cancer and is travelling to London to tell Phil, if she can ever get hold of him.

As Saturday night approaches, all their lives are set to change forever. It’s the hottest summer on record and the weekend is about to begin…



Author: Oisín McKenna
Format: Hardback
Release Date: 09 May 2024
Pages: 352
ISBN: 978-0-00-860417-2
Oisín McKenna grew up in Drogheda, Ireland, and lives in London. He was awarded the Next Generation Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland to write Evenings and Weekends – the highest award for an emerging artist in Ireland – and it was developed with further funding from Arts Council England. Evenings and Weekends has been awarded a 2022 London Writers Award, which supports London’s most promising underrepresented writers. In 2017, Oisín was named in the Irish Times one of the best-spoken word artists in the country. He has written and performed four theatre shows, including ADMIN, an award-winning production at Dublin Fringe 2019, and has written for outlets including the Irish Times on issues such as gentrification and the alienation of Dublin’s youth.

'A masterpiece. This searing tale of love, sex and class will resonate for generations to come' Owen Jones -

”'A love letter to cities and people and heartbreaks. It made me cry” - Eileen Myles

”'Astonishing. A magnificent read” - Russell Tovey

”'Sexy, clever and shockingly alive. I couldn’t put it down. I have never read a book that captures what London feels like to young people quite so compellingly” - Tomasz Jedrowski, author of Swimming in the Dark

'The aching, swelling humanity of this book swallowed me whole' Saba Sams, author of Send Nudes -

'A bit like the book version of a Richard Curtis film but with more sex' GQ -

'Zadie Smith-esque in its kaleidoscope of London. Compassionate, intelligent, hilarious' Niamh Campbell, author of This Happy -

'A novel brimming with life, confronting the difficult and ugly with a fresh and charming levity' Nicola Dinan, author of Bellies -

'A stunning debut guaranteed to be one of the books of the summer' Hero -

”'I was entirely consumed by it. McKenna's characters are so deeply truthful that I'm half-convinced I was there too, on that hot, sweaty weekend in 2019” - Kate Young, author of Experienced

'Full of life and rings with passion and hope. A brilliant study of the sins of modern Britain and the energy of contemporary London' Soula Emmanuel, author of Wild Geese -

'One of the most promising spoken word artists in the country, who avoids misty-eyed accounts of society and instead cuts through with brilliant observational political commentary' Irish Times -