Elaine Feeney & Jarred McGinnis

Jamie O’Neill, the main protagonist of Elaine Feeney‘s How To Build A Boat, loves the colour red. He also loves tall trees, patterns, rain that comes with wind, the curvature of many objects, books with dust jackets, cats, rivers and Edgar Allan Poe. At age 13 there are two things he especially wants in life: to build a Perpetual Motion Machine, and to connect with his mother Noelle, who died when he was born. In his mind these things are intimately linked. And at his new school, where all else is disorientating and overwhelming, he finds two people who might just be able to help him.

‘A heart-stopping read and a stunning, resonant exploration of a community, a motherless boy and living an authentic life.’ Sinéad Gleeson

After a car accident Jarred discovers he’ll never walk again. Confined to a ‘giant roller-skate’, he finds himself with neither money nor job, a shoplifting habit, an addiction to painkillers and strangers treating him like he’s an idiot. Worse still, he’s forced to live back home with his estranged father. Trying to piece himself together, Jarred comes to realise that things don’t have to stay broken after all. The Coward by Jarred McGinnis is a compelling and darkly humorous exploration of what it means to come to terms with a broken body, rebuild a broken relationship and find love when it seems like there is no hope.