‘Reading The Voids is a sensory experience. There is never a word too much, it never lingers. There is tragedy but no melodrama. O’Connor’s lightness of touch, the pace, economy, characters … are all perfect, all harmonious, poetic, but unadorned, even in the blackest of moments. Part of me is still in that high rise or watching the sunlight through the fire exit door at The Satellite. It is beautiful and perfect. I want to say this is a book God would like.’
Paul Buchanan, The Blue Nile
‘A startling debut … Benders are integral to the Scottish literary tradition, but O’Connor sets the bar high in a series of absurd, visionary, uproarious episodes … A triumph of the grotesque … Comedy at its most existential.’
John Burnside, TLS
‘A sensory portrait of the city, set in a dizzyingly surreal Glasgow.’
Katie Goh, i-D Magazine
‘At times disturbing, and at others hilarious, there are characters that appear for a page that have haunted me ever since. A wild ride that journeys through the underbelly of our society.’
Paul McVeigh, author of The Good Son
‘The Voids is a wild, magical, and magnetically mad picaresque … it had me bellowing with laughter on one page and needing to weep on the next. I tore through it, and it through me. A brilliant debut.’
Niall Griffiths, author of Sheepshagger and Broken Ghost
‘It is rare to discover a book that is simultaneously beautiful and devastating, where characters are frightening to behold but also worthy of compassion. The Voids is a brilliant emotional tapestry woven by a writer of immense talent.’
Simon Van Booy, author of Night Came with Many Stars
‘There are echoes of J.G. Ballard in the setting, and of Don DeLillo in the prose. But The Voids is distinctively and brilliantly Ryan O’Connor’s own, rich with precise observations, full of haunting images, and replete with deft vignettes of character, place, and context. This is a novel that confidently generates its own unnerving atmospheres. Extraordinary work.’
Kevin Power, author of Bad Day in Blackrock
‘In the space of a few pages, I was there, right in the world of The Voids, in its chaos and sadness, its life and humour. Melodrama and sentimentality have no place in Ryan O’Connor’s writing. Instead he gives us warmth and bleakness, humanity and beauty. The “voids” might be empty but this novel is brimming with feeling and perception.’
Wendy Erskine, author of Sweet Home
‘Poignant, poetic, and compassionate, The Voids is a tender tale of alienation, and the need to escape and, paradoxically, to belong.’
Lisa Harding, author of Bright Burning Things
'This distinctive debut leaves you wanting to read more from O’Connor.’
Anthony Cummins, The Daily Mail
‘Ryan O’Connor succeeds in conjuring beautiful imagery out of a desperate situation. A whirlwind tour of Glasgow, in the wake of a protagonist plagued by addiction and failure is lifted by the narrative’s breakneck pace, and frequent moments of real humour. Reminiscent of James Kelman’s work, The Voids should be on everyone’s reading list this year.’
Polly Markham, Golden Hare Books
‘One to watch!’
The Bookseller
‘An engulfing read.’
Heather McDaid, The Skinny
‘Finely written … O’Connor creates a world ex nihilo, showcasing the lives of the forgotten.'
The Irish Times
'An unflinching yet poetic portrait of addiction, this bleak tale is leavened by glimmers of hope and humour.’
Dan Shaw, Happy Mag
‘Beautiful, and both explicit and allusive, The Voids is a brave and moving work.’
Penelope Cottier, The Canberra Times
‘Remarkable … the most intriguing Scottish debut for a decade.’
Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday
‘I recently visited Glasgow, the city where I grew up, and was reminded (in the miraculous sunshine) of the atmospheric scope of the Necropolis in the east end of the city ... The Voids by Ryan O’Connor makes an ideal accompaniment to your visit.’
Peter Scalpello, Galley Beggar Press
