At forty, deeply iconoclastic Spat Ryan is recently divorced, unemployed, and frequently intoxicated. Inspired by the cliche “we’re only as sick as our secrets,” he decides to reveal himself a piece at a time for the “cure.” A deeply skeptical outsider, stunted by many adolescent appetites, Spat survived his often violent, terrifying past by keeping his darkest truths out of mind. A wholly unpopular student, he was christened “Big Dummy” by a nun teaching at his junior high. The name Spat the Dummy and an unearned bad reputation followed him to the end of his miserable school years. Raised by a bagman for the Irish mob, Spat has fictionalized or ignored chuinks of his life too painful to contemplate. When he meets an old friend of his father’s in a bar on the Main, they develop a camaraderie built on memories of the man they both revered. During a drinking session with his father’s old friend, it is revealed that she, too, has been keeping the same secret that ultimately shaped Spat’s tumultuous life. Her reaction to the recollection ends their friendship and begins his quest to understand how he became hiself. ‘Spat the Dummy’ is a brilliant debut novel that will have readers longing for more from this wildly original writer.

“This is a satisfying read from a talented author that manages to convey the rather hopeful message that each od Spat’s small successes mean moe than all of his spectacular failures combined.” – Montreal Gazette