A patch of ice on the road, a casual favour to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil – can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life?

Skippy Dies
Written by Paul Murray
- Longlisted
- The Man Booker Prize 2010
- Published by Penguin
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Paul Murray wrings every drop of humour and despair out of life, mermaids, M-theory, the poetry of Robert Graves and the mystery of the human heart
Ruprecht Van Doren is an overweight genius whose hobbies include very difficult maths and the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. ‘Skippy’ Juster is his roommate. In the grand old Dublin institution that is Seabrook College for Boys, nobody pays either of them much attention. But when Skippy falls for Lori, the frisbee-playing siren from the girls’ school next door, suddenly all kinds of people take an interest. Including Carl, part-time drug-dealer and full-time school psychopath.
Paul Murray
Paul Murray was born in Dublin in 1975, and wrote his first novel – An Evening of Long Goodbyes – while doing a creative writing MA at the University of East Anglia
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