Jaq, A Top Boy Story
Ronan Bennett
Available as Paperback, eBook, Downloadable audio
Original novel by Ronan Bennett set in the London portrayed by Bennett within his celebrated and award-winning TV drama Top Boy
AN IRISH TIMES FICTION BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR
I’m going to tell you everything. I’m gonna tell you the whole story.
Sometimes all it takes is a single message. Maybe it’s bad, like a rival top boy’s been switched off. Or maybe it’s good, like an opportunity you never thought you’d get. But opportunities mean risks, and debts, and you never want to owe anyone anything.
Jaq’s worked hard on the road since she was fourteen, bringing in money to keep her broken family afloat. Now she’s built a good life near the top of the Summerhouse crew, with a beautiful home she shares with her girlfriend Becks and her heavily pregnant older sister Lauryn.
But messages are coming in — good and bad — and Jaq has to make a choice: step back from the road and start a life she’s never even considered. Or seize her opportunities and risk everything for life-changing money. Either way, Jaq will make enemies. And those enemies aren’t going to let her go easily …
“[Ronan Bennett] is back with a bang”
belfast Telegraph
See more reviews
”Praise for Ronan Bennett: Bennett’s writing is as lush and sensual as ripe mangoes. His characters are complex and sympathetic. The tone, which is perfectly pitched, and the exotic setting collude to evoke an era of colonial decadence”
financial Times
“A writer to watch, a genuine and gifted novelist”
independent
“A clever and exciting thriller … a crime novel that’s both literary and gripping, a rare treat”
daily Mail
Ronan Bennett
Ronan Bennett was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His novel The Catastrophist (1997) won the Irish Post Literature Award and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award. Havoc, in its third year (2004) won Irish Novel of the Year and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. His recent work includes the feature film Public Enemies in 2009 and the television series Hidden (2011), Gunpowder (2017) and Top Boy (2011–present).