“The mood is mischievous, the writing, kinetic. BEDLAM is full of trouble and song, as certainly of Dublin as a settling pint, and Mac Evilly a guide with a glint in his eye.” Lisa McInerney, Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2016

“A high-wire act, a daring and astute social satire that is genuinely comedic. Each page thrums with energy and ambition.” Nicole Flattery, author of Show Them A Good Time

Dublin, 2033. Unchecked climate change has ravaged the global economy. It’s a time of mass unemployment, of patchy internet coverage, of idling and communal living. The city’s needs shift; gone are mocha lattes, designer sneakers, and new phones – folks want firewood, moonshine and pirate radio.

From this new disorder emerges CHAUNCEY DEVINE, a vagrant genius returned to the city after eight mysterious years abroad, with strange, brilliant new theories in tow. His ideas capture the city’s imagination, and Dublin’s new ramshackle, black market ways of life start to look like the future.

But with Chauncey’s wisdom matched only by his elusiveness, it’s up to his acolytes to carry out his grand plans. There’s WATTY, a stoned dreamer whose million plans would solve the world’s problems if only he had the focus to see them through. There’s his crafty best friend, CONN, a smut-peddler in the new Éirotica scene, whose ambitions as a writer tussle with his principles and relationships. And there’s Conn’s teenage crush PHIDELMA, a nurse undercutting what’s left of the health service, who realises the alcohol she distils for treatments is also good for booze. Together, and to their surprise, they find themselves running Dublin’s finest unpub.

As the anarchy grows, so too does unwanted attention from the de facto police—the Constab—backed by hidden interests, who will make a final push to re-establish the old power structures. Can Watty, Conn and Phidelma save their new post-capitalist society teetering between Utopia and Dystopia? Do Chauncey’s ideas have the potential to save something far greater than the city?

Ursula K. Le Guin meets Kevin Barry in this riotous, joyful and fiercely political debut.