About the Book
A BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2022 FOR BBC, i-D MAGAZINE, AND FOYLES
‘After a couple of weeks, I found myself standing outside the voids in the middle of the night listening for human activity, for any sign of life at all. Voids are flats that have been vacated, that will never be lived in again. But there never were any signs of life. Only the wind whistling through vacant interiors.’
In a condemned tower block in Glasgow, residents slowly trickle away until a young man is left alone with only the angels and devils in his mind for company. Stumbling from one surreal situation to the next, he encounters others on the margins of society, finding friendship and camaraderie wherever it is offered, grappling with who he is and what shape his future might take.
The Voids is an unsparing story of modern-day Britain, told with brilliant flashes of humour and humanity.
About the Author :
Ryan O’Connor received the Scottish Book Trust Next Chapter Award in 2018; later the same year he was Highly Commended in the Bridport Prize short story category. He currently lives in Glasgow with his partner and two young sons.
Review :
‘A moving and thoroughly enjoyable tale of life in the liminal spaces. A masterly debut.’
‘Luminous … a writer capable of revealing the humanity in everyone … In an era when contemporary fiction is leaning ever more towards identity and relatability, it’s gratifying to know there’s still a place for a literary ride as wild as this.’
‘Reading The Voids is a sensory experience. There is never a word too much, it never lingers. There is tragedy but no melodrama. O’Connor’s lightness of touch, the pace, economy, characters … are all perfect, all harmonious, poetic, but unadorned, even in the blackest of moments. Part of me is still in that high rise or watching the sunlight through the fire exit door at The Satellite. It is beautiful and perfect. I want to say this is a book God would like.’
‘A novel about a young man in Glasgow whose life is spiralling downwards, told in almost hallucinogenic prose. I catch glimpses of Alexander Trocchi and William Burroughs in it, but it retains its own unique quality.’
‘A startling debut … Benders are integral to the Scottish literary tradition, but O’Connor sets the bar high in a series of absurd, visionary, uproarious episodes … A triumph of the grotesque … Comedy at its most existential.’
‘A sensory portrait of the city, set in a dizzyingly surreal Glasgow.’
‘At times disturbing, and at others hilarious, there are characters that appear for a page that have haunted me ever since. A wild ride that journeys through the underbelly of our society.’
‘The Voids is a wild, magical, and magnetically mad picaresque … it had me bellowing with laughter on one page and needing to weep on the next. I tore through it, and it through me. A brilliant debut.’
‘It is rare to discover a book that is simultaneously beautiful and devastating, where characters are frightening to behold but also worthy of compassion. The Voids is a brilliant emotional tapestry woven by a writer of immense talent.’
‘There are echoes of J.G. Ballard in the setting, and of Don DeLillo in the prose. But The Voids is distinctively and brilliantly Ryan O’Connor’s own, rich with precise observations, full of haunting images, and replete with deft vignettes of character, place, and context. This is a novel that confidently generates its own unnerving atmospheres. Extraordinary work.’
‘In the space of a few pages, I was there, right in the world of The Voids, in its chaos and sadness, its life and humour. Melodrama and sentimentality have no place in Ryan O’Connor’s writing. Instead he gives us warmth and bleakness, humanity and beauty. The “voids” might be empty but this novel is brimming with feeling and perception.’
‘Poignant, poetic, and compassionate, The Voids is a tender tale of alienation, and the need to escape and, paradoxically, to belong.’
'This distinctive debut leaves you wanting to read more from O’Connor.’
‘Ryan O’Connor succeeds in conjuring beautiful imagery out of a desperate situation. A whirlwind tour of Glasgow, in the wake of a protagonist plagued by addiction and failure is lifted by the narrative’s breakneck pace, and frequent moments of real humour. Reminiscent of James Kelman’s work, The Voids should be on everyone’s reading list this year.’
‘One to watch!’
‘An engulfing read.’
‘Ryan O’Connor’s debut novel The Voids has him earmarked as the new “overnight sensation” of the literary world … Critics and fellow authors have been going mad for The Voids.’
‘Finely written … O’Connor creates a world ex nihilo, showcasing the lives of the forgotten.'
‘Remarkable … perhaps the most intriguing Scottish debut for a decade.’
'An unflinching yet poetic portrait of addiction, this bleak tale is leavened by glimmers of hope and humour.’
‘Beautiful, and both explicit and allusive, The Voids is a brave and moving work.’
‘I recently visited Glasgow, the city where I grew up, and was reminded (in the miraculous sunshine) of the atmospheric scope of the Necropolis in the east end of the city ... The Voids by Ryan O’Connor makes an ideal accompaniment to your visit.’
‘One of Scotland’s most talented new authors.’
‘Scottish author O’Connor delivers a searing and passionate debut from the voice of an angsty young Glaswegian who squats in a mostly abandoned high rise he calls “the voids.” … Readers will be lifted by his protagonist’s commitment to finding beauty in the darkness.’
‘Not only the best debut of the year, but my book of the year.’
‘When all the lists are totted up at the end of the year, it would be a little disappointing if Ryan O’Connor’s remarkable debut hadn’t scored a respectably high placing among the best Scottish novels of 2022. Already, O’Connor has found a voice: one which is convincingly authentic, and yet mercurial enough to chart both the transcendent highs and soul-destroying lows of alcoholism.’
‘Compelling and well-written … The episodic darkness can be unrelenting at times, but what redeems the material is not only O’Connor’s effortless prose but also his hope for humanity rooted in his surprising optimism.’
‘Ryan O'Connor's superb debut treads familiar territory within Scottish fiction, such as Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting and Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain, it is lyrical and poetic, humorous and heartbreaking, unnerving and disorientating … Simply brilliant, and highly recommended.’
‘The prose in Scottish newcomer Ryan O’Connor’s The Voids soars higher than the condemned Glasgow skyscraper in which his solitary protagonist lives, transcending the grungy, grinding plot with brutal lyricism.’
‘A debut that puts your brain to work! The reading experience was akin to electroconvulsive therapy, exciting my grey matter like never before.’
