The Wild Laughter

An exhilarating dark comedy about two brothers confronting their father's fate in contemporary Ireland, from a critically acclaimed Irish author

'Brilliant. A hilarious, poetical black comedy... Do read it.' Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

It's 2008, and the Celtic Tiger has left devastation in its wake. Brothers Hart and Cormac Black are waking up to a very different Ireland – one that widens the chasm between them and brings their beloved father to his knees. Facing a devastating choice that will put their livelihood, even their lives, on the line, the brothers soon learn that their biggest danger comes when there is nothing to lose.

A sharp snapshot of a family and a nation suddenly unmoored, this epic-in-miniature explores cowardice and sacrifice, faith rewarded and abandoned, the stories we tell ourselves and the ones we resist. Hilarious, poignant and utterly fresh, The Wild Laughter cements Caoilinn Hughes' position as one of Ireland's most audacious, nuanced and insightful young writers.

'A grand feat of comic ingenuity, mischievous and insightful, and full of resonance for the way we live now... So original and vibrant.' Encore Award Judges

FINALIST FOR THE AN POST IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2020, THE RTÉ RADIO 1 LISTENERS' CHOICE AWARD 2020 & THE DALKEY EMERGING WRITER AWARD 2021

LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE & THE i COMEDY WOMEN IN PRINT PRIZE, 2021

AN IRISH TIMES, IRISH SUNDAY TIMES, IRISH INDEPENDENT & SUNDAY INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR, 2020

Caoilinn Hughes’ first novel, Orchid & the Wasp (2018), won the Collyer Bristow Prize 2019, was shortlisted for the Hearst Big Book Awards and the Butler Literary Award, and longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and the International DUBLIN Literary Award 2020. Her poetry collection, Gathering Evidence (Carcanet 2014), won the Irish Times Strong/Shine Award. Her short fiction won The Moth Short Story Prize 2018, a 2019 O. Henry Prize, and the Irish Book Awards Story of the Year 2020. The Wild Laughter is her second novel, and was longlisted for the 2021 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize, and shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year 2020 and the RTÉ Radio 1 Listeners Choice Award. She holds a PhD from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and is currently the Oscar Wilde Centre Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin.