Danny Williams didn’t mean to be a lawyer, but somehow he is — and for up to eighteen hours a day. He’s well paid, home owning, and twenty-seven – but is also overworked, lonely, and frequently stoned. The plan was to leave the troubles of a small town in Northern Ireland for the big city in England, but one evening an old school friend, Geordie, bursts into Danny’s shiny new life. On the run from a Loyalist militia, Geordie brings everything Danny thought he had left behind and dumps it on his doorstep.
With infectious wit and energy to burn, Utterly Monkey is a searing, fiercely funny, and ultimately redemptive novel about surviving an office job, outwitting the bad guys, and, hopefully, getting the girl.
“Part caper movie, part coming-of-age story, part urban satire, Utterly Monkey introduces a writer with a wonderfully original and limber voice… Laird uses his razor-sharp eye for detail and ear for how regular people talk to give us an ebullient cast of characters, rendered with an idiosyncratic mixture of sympathy and wry humor.” –Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“An extraordinarily accomplished novel, by a confident and eloquent voice, filled with humour and insight.” –The Sunday Times
“The real thing; a novel rich in both achievement and promise.” –The Times