This book is a satire on those belt-tightening days in Ireland in the fifties. 

It's written in a mixture of gangster movie dialogue and magic realism, following Danny’s journey towards enlightenment, a story in which he sees his entire family decimated, his father unable to receive the medical attention he urgently requires, his older brother committing suicide in a prison cell, his younger brother ascending to the heavens in a fiery chariot, and his mother worn out before her time working day and night to try and make ends meet. 

The tale is full of black humour, depicting the utter hypocrisy of those in power, and the contempt with which they looked down from their privileged positions as they manipulated the great unwashed, while they themselves lived in luxury on the proceeds of their corruption.