The Visit: 'Brilliant and intriguing' - Colm Tóibín

'The Visit is an engrossing and tender portrait of a small town under pressure ... Stark and elemental - at the heart of the novel is a sort of quiet yearning and a longing for love and for completion that makes Neil Tully's novel so brilliant and intriguing' - Colm Tóibín

"The lad is a bit like a stray dog. I keep an eye on him and throw him a few scraps. There are plenty of people in this town who'd just as soon drop him off in the wilderness and hope there's no scent to follow home. The problem is that Patrick could find his way out of any wilderness and they wouldn't like whatever starved thing came back."

Sergeant Jim Field feels a guilty paternalism for Patrick Hatten, a young man struggling to find a job, a life and a purpose in a small-town Wexford community. Both are used to being on the fringes but while Jim is a romantic with bad health and regret, Patrick is full of anger and action, and his actions could have devastating effects.



About the Author :
Neil Tully lives in Cork. He has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Limerick. The Visit is his first book.

Review :
'What a delight it is to read such a wonderful story, written so beautifully. Spare, authentic, effortlessly lyrical, it is a stunning novel, the work of a writer of the first order' 'The Visit is an engrossing and tender portrait of a small town under pressure ... Stark and elemental - at the heart of the novel is a sort of quiet yearning and a longing for love and for completion that makes Neil Tully's novel so brilliant and intriguing' 'Once in a while, you read a novel so accomplished that you want to read the author's backlist but, to your surprise, it turns out to be a debut. That's how good Neil Tully's The Visit is. Combining great storytelling with lyrical writing, this deserves to be on everyone's must-read list for 2026' 'Compassionate but clear-eyed, brimming with insight and emotional intelligence, this is a novel whose characters will linger with you long after you've closed the pages' 'An exquisite and powerful debut novel from a compelling new voice in Irish fiction' 'An accomplished and atmospheric debut' 'Outstanding' 'An amazing novel' 'An utterly absorbing and hugely readable novel, The Visit is a story that captures a transitional time in Irish history so incredibly well, that at times I felt I was watching it up close. Field is a compelling protagonist, flawed, human and meticulously drawn. I was gripped from the start. The writing is so good' 'A strong debut that showcases both the viciousness and salvation of community' 'Intrigue boils beneath the rural calm of this elegant novel; Neil Tully masterfully pulls the reader into a world where menace and the humdrum co-mingle uneasily. The prose is intelligent, gorgeous and empathic; the atmosphere subtly unsettling. The Visit is an accomplished, fully formed début' 'The Visit makes an incision into 1960s New Ross as Ireland readies to welcome President Kennedy, and defiant Patrick Hatten toils under the weight of his family's past - and the town's judgment. A portrait of an Ireland still rooted in tradition, yet hopeful for change, The Visit is an engrossing novel filled with rich prose, compassion and a tension that drives the narrative to the very last page' 'Neil Tully's tremendous first novel has been, for me, the surprise of the summer. The Visit is a sheer delight, a considerable feat of the imagination, a proper story beautifully, delicately written and gripping from first page to last. Even in a country already popping at the seams with fine literature, this debut offering must be one of the year's standouts. It announces Neil as a writer of clearly considerable talent, and deserves to fly with critics and readers alike' 'Neil Tully is a deeply humane writer. There's great lyric beauty in The Visit, but there's real ballast here as well'