Perpetual Comedown
Perpetual Comedown
by Declan Toohey
The debut novel from an unforgettable new voice in Irish fiction.
ISBN: 9781848408487 | Paperback | 256pp | Release Date: 13th February 2023
As a doctoral student at Trinity College Dublin, Darren Walton is trying to decode an elaborate conspiracy he stumbled across as an undergraduate. To do so he must locate an alternate Ireland named Camland, the existence of which is proven when he discovers a literary journal whose contents mirror his own past. With proof of his wild theories, Darren is sure academic fame is imminent. But for this he is willing to sacrifice not just his sanity and physical safety, but also his relationships with the ones who love him most.
In breathless prose, Declan Toohey weaves a contemporary yarn of academic intrigue and youthful irreverence, sexual fluidity and neurodiversity. Experimental, trippy, hilarious, compassionate, Perpetual Comedown is a riotous reckoning in the construction of the self.
“A novel so unique, so zany it is unlike anything I have read before ... It is bold. It is bonkers. It is brilliantly clever.
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“This experimental, thought-provoking and creative novel is probably the strangest thing you’ll read this year – in the best possible way.”
“Toohey’s explosive prose transports the reader into Darren’s complex, hallucinatory world ... reveals a profound, moving insight into mental illness.”
“Declan Toohey is a little genius.”
“Declan Toohey writes with lapel-grabbing flair and wit, PERPETUAL COMEDOWN fizzes with narrative invention, literary intrigue and esoteric mayhem. As contemporary Irish novels go, it’s out there in its own wild, fearless place.”
“Such a surprising book; it reveals its secrets slowly, so what seems first to be a work in the great tradition of Irish surrealism actually becomes something real, and genuinely affecting. Through the hijinks, the satire and the fun poked at academia and literature comes heart-breaking humanity: love, loss, fear and fragility. The result is a novel that’s wild, beautiful, and poignant.”
