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Notes from a Coma

Author Mike McCormack
Paperback
$15.00 US
| $19.00 CAN
Soho Press
On sale Mar 05, 2013 | 208 Pages | 9781616952327
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Mike McCormack's new novel Solar Bones is longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize.

About Notes from a Coma

JJ O’ Malley, adopted from a Romanian orphanage by a single father in the west of Ireland, grows up a permanent outsider, and yet he finds his place in the community. At least until his world is shaken by the death of his best friend, and he volunteers for the “Somnos Project,” an experimental program testing deep coma as a potential option in the EU penal system.
 
In a prison ship docked in Killary Harbour, JJ is hooked up to monitoring devices that feed out to the Internet, and he and his fellow guinea pigs become global celebrities. A beautifully rendered look at small-town Irish life, and a far-reaching investigation of politics, neuroscience, global communications, and the ethics of incarceration, Notes from a Coma is a major work from one of the world’s bravest and most unusual novelists.
Rescued from the squalor of a Romanian orphanage, and adopted by the rural community of west Mayo, J. J. O'Malley should have grown up happy. The boy has no gift for it, though, and his new life has a brutal way of giving him plenty to be unhappy about. After a sudden tragedy, J. J. suffers a catastrophic mental breakdown. Unable to live with himself, he volunteers for an improbable government project which has been set up to explore the possibility of using deep coma as a future option within the EU penal system. When his coma goes online the nation turns to watch, and J. J. is quickly elevated to the status of cultural icon. Sex symbol, existential hero, T-shirt philosopher─his public profile now threatens to obscure the man himself behind a swirl of media profiles, online polls, and EEG tracings.
 
Five narrators─his father, neighbour, teacher, public representative, and sweetheart─tell us the true story of his life and try to give some clue as to why he is the way he is now: floating in a maintained coma on a prison ship off the west coast of Ireland. Brilliantly imagined and artfully constructed─merging science fiction with an affectionate portrait of small town Ireland─Notes from a Coma is both the story of a man cursed with guilt and genius and a compassionate examination of how our identities are safeguarded and held in trust by those who love us.
Copyright © 2013 by Mike McCormack. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Praise for Notes from a Coma

"A cross between 1984 and The X-Files . . . Notes From a Coma establishes McCormack as one of the most original and important voices in contemporary Irish fiction.”
─Irish Times (original review)
 
"The greatest Irish novel of the decade."
─Irish Times

"McCormack's language is lovely, lyrical . . . his humor is dark, macabre; the words glimmer like a spell."
─Time Out

“The testimony about JJ's life is written with a sad and touching simplicity . . . Intriguing.”
─The Wall Street Journal

“Subtle but haunting storytelling mixes with an insightful examination into the ethics of the penal system to produce an unusual and unforgettable read.”
─Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Notes from a Coma is the finest book yet from one of Ireland's most singular contemporary writers, a daring reinvention of the gothic for the age of machines."
—Matt Bell, author of Appleseed

“A major talent in Irish fiction . . . McCormack slyly and brilliantly satirizes, among many other things, our fixations with celebrity and high-priced medical technology.”
─Booklist

“Additional events and commentary take place literarily underneath these chapters in long footnotes . . . [They underscore] how unique and noteworthy this unusual novel truly is — and why McCormack undeniably deserves a wider audience on this side of the globe.”
─Bookgasm

“An intriguing novel that touches on many of the moral and ethical questions of the day. Mike McCormack is one to watch.” 
─Book Chase

“A great work of literary/psychological fiction . . . well worth the read.”
─A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall

“Are you ready for something mind-bending, something intelligent, introspective, and quintessentially Irish? Five men volunteer to enter a comatose state to test a new idea for incarceration of criminals. The novel makes a subtle statement on today’s politics, spirituality, and even celebrity worship.”
—Mary T. of R.J. Julia Booksellers
 
"Compelling . . . A story of politics, psychology, metaphysics, and family that defies easy classification."
─Required Reading

Praise for Mike McCormack
"McCormack's obsessions at times converge with those explored by Ian McEwan, Will Self and J. G. Ballard, but his clever ideas and fluid, gracefully morbid style are all his own."
─GQ
 
"When venturing into the realm of the macabre, a writer gains a distinct advantage if he has a sense of discipline and a sense of humor . . . Mike McCormack has both to spare . . . Like parables in their easy transcendence of setting and time, the most audacious stories are classics."
─The New York Times Book Review
Mike McCormack is an award-winning novelist and short story writer from County Mayo in Ireland. He is the author of Solar Bones, which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2017; Notes from a Coma, which was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award; Crowe’s Requiem; and Getting It in the Head, which was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; and the short story collection Forensic Songs. He lives in Galway. View titles by Mike McCormack

About

Mike McCormack's new novel Solar Bones is longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize.

About Notes from a Coma

JJ O’ Malley, adopted from a Romanian orphanage by a single father in the west of Ireland, grows up a permanent outsider, and yet he finds his place in the community. At least until his world is shaken by the death of his best friend, and he volunteers for the “Somnos Project,” an experimental program testing deep coma as a potential option in the EU penal system.
 
In a prison ship docked in Killary Harbour, JJ is hooked up to monitoring devices that feed out to the Internet, and he and his fellow guinea pigs become global celebrities. A beautifully rendered look at small-town Irish life, and a far-reaching investigation of politics, neuroscience, global communications, and the ethics of incarceration, Notes from a Coma is a major work from one of the world’s bravest and most unusual novelists.

Excerpt

Rescued from the squalor of a Romanian orphanage, and adopted by the rural community of west Mayo, J. J. O'Malley should have grown up happy. The boy has no gift for it, though, and his new life has a brutal way of giving him plenty to be unhappy about. After a sudden tragedy, J. J. suffers a catastrophic mental breakdown. Unable to live with himself, he volunteers for an improbable government project which has been set up to explore the possibility of using deep coma as a future option within the EU penal system. When his coma goes online the nation turns to watch, and J. J. is quickly elevated to the status of cultural icon. Sex symbol, existential hero, T-shirt philosopher─his public profile now threatens to obscure the man himself behind a swirl of media profiles, online polls, and EEG tracings.
 
Five narrators─his father, neighbour, teacher, public representative, and sweetheart─tell us the true story of his life and try to give some clue as to why he is the way he is now: floating in a maintained coma on a prison ship off the west coast of Ireland. Brilliantly imagined and artfully constructed─merging science fiction with an affectionate portrait of small town Ireland─Notes from a Coma is both the story of a man cursed with guilt and genius and a compassionate examination of how our identities are safeguarded and held in trust by those who love us.
Copyright © 2013 by Mike McCormack. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Reviews

Praise for Notes from a Coma

"A cross between 1984 and The X-Files . . . Notes From a Coma establishes McCormack as one of the most original and important voices in contemporary Irish fiction.”
─Irish Times (original review)
 
"The greatest Irish novel of the decade."
─Irish Times

"McCormack's language is lovely, lyrical . . . his humor is dark, macabre; the words glimmer like a spell."
─Time Out

“The testimony about JJ's life is written with a sad and touching simplicity . . . Intriguing.”
─The Wall Street Journal

“Subtle but haunting storytelling mixes with an insightful examination into the ethics of the penal system to produce an unusual and unforgettable read.”
─Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Notes from a Coma is the finest book yet from one of Ireland's most singular contemporary writers, a daring reinvention of the gothic for the age of machines."
—Matt Bell, author of Appleseed

“A major talent in Irish fiction . . . McCormack slyly and brilliantly satirizes, among many other things, our fixations with celebrity and high-priced medical technology.”
─Booklist

“Additional events and commentary take place literarily underneath these chapters in long footnotes . . . [They underscore] how unique and noteworthy this unusual novel truly is — and why McCormack undeniably deserves a wider audience on this side of the globe.”
─Bookgasm

“An intriguing novel that touches on many of the moral and ethical questions of the day. Mike McCormack is one to watch.” 
─Book Chase

“A great work of literary/psychological fiction . . . well worth the read.”
─A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall

“Are you ready for something mind-bending, something intelligent, introspective, and quintessentially Irish? Five men volunteer to enter a comatose state to test a new idea for incarceration of criminals. The novel makes a subtle statement on today’s politics, spirituality, and even celebrity worship.”
—Mary T. of R.J. Julia Booksellers
 
"Compelling . . . A story of politics, psychology, metaphysics, and family that defies easy classification."
─Required Reading

Praise for Mike McCormack
"McCormack's obsessions at times converge with those explored by Ian McEwan, Will Self and J. G. Ballard, but his clever ideas and fluid, gracefully morbid style are all his own."
─GQ
 
"When venturing into the realm of the macabre, a writer gains a distinct advantage if he has a sense of discipline and a sense of humor . . . Mike McCormack has both to spare . . . Like parables in their easy transcendence of setting and time, the most audacious stories are classics."
─The New York Times Book Review

Author

Mike McCormack is an award-winning novelist and short story writer from County Mayo in Ireland. He is the author of Solar Bones, which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2017; Notes from a Coma, which was shortlisted for the Irish Book of the Year Award; Crowe’s Requiem; and Getting It in the Head, which was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; and the short story collection Forensic Songs. He lives in Galway. View titles by Mike McCormack

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