Keshed
- Ortac Press
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
 It's time to get Keshed...
This is the debut novel from Stu Hennigan, one of the most vital writers working today. We’re lucky to be publishing two books with Stu, with more to come on his upcoming Bret Easton Ellis project soon.
Keshed is a true sledgehammer of a book: a deep, dark, immersive ride through the life and mind of one man desperately struggling to hold it all together. It is also a powerful political novel and a chronicle of the North and wider UK society over multiple decades. Keshed has already been described as “an exceptional debut novel” and “original, difficult and revelatory” by the TLS in its first major review ahead of publication.
To give you a flavour of the book, read below for some of the extraordinary things that have already been said about it. You can order a copy from us or your local bookshop, and book tickets to one of Stu’s upcoming events around the country (and online), all listed below.
Stu will be on both Radio Leeds (Breakfast Show, 9:15am) and Chapel FM tomorrow (10th Feb) and there will be a number of upcoming press and media appearches we will share details of.
We can’t wait to get Keshed out into the world, and we hope you enjoy the ride. Published on Thursday 12th February |
‘Stu Hennigan is one of my favourite writers. His voice is unmistakable and always compelling. Keshed, in its presentation of class and fatherhood, displays verve, fearlessness and total commitment to its characters and their world. It’s brutal and beautiful.’ Wendy Erskine, author of The Benefactors
‘What a f*****g triumph. Heartbreaking, vicious and so brilliant.’ Heidi James, author of The Sound Mirror
‘Keshed is a novel of fierce power, with a voice that rips from the page. It’s propelled by desperate yearnings: for feeling, for connection, for release from the tethers of addiction and trauma, of society and the self. It stares down hopelessness, and bursts with defiant desire.’ James Scudamore, Booker Prize-longlisted author of Heliopolis
‘Keshed hums with the vitality of lived and hard-won experience that only fiction of the most transcendent kind can deliver. Channeling Bukowski, Denis Johnson and Hubert Selby Jr in a Yorkshire patois of brutal authenticity, Stu Hennigan’s debut is a howl of remarkable intensity and compassion from the heart of Britain’s working-class North.’ Lee Brackstone
‘Absolutely extraordinary. It’s like reading a Molotov cocktail.’ Rose Ruane, Women’s Prize-longlisted author of Birding
‘One of the mightiest books I have ever read - sometimes I wanted to turn away from it but the vortex created is so powerful you cannot escape from it - it is fireworks and pinched flesh and it will not leave you quietly.’ Robin Ince
‘Profane, darkly funny, unflinching in its focus on the wreckage of ordinary lives: Hennigan is a voice we need.’ Naomi Booth, author of raw content and Exit Management
‘Timely and urgent. Hennigan is one of the country’s finest writers on the confluence of capitalism and class ... a beautiful, visceral, gut-punch of a novel.’ Angharad Hampshire, Walter Scott Prize-shortlisted author of The Mare
‘Keshed is an incredibly powerful book. Immersive, visceral and compelling. For long stretches of it I was right back in the world of my upbringing, the stink and the glory.’ Mark Bowles, Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted author of All My Precious Madness
‘I want to use the words ‘gritty and brutal’ to describe this phenomenal work but ‘beautiful and intricate’ need to be alongside them to fully do justice to this visceral textual landscape. It’s a book that both takes and gives. Like all great art.’ Juno Roche, author of A Working-Class Family Ages Badly
‘Keshed is brazen in its brutality and its brilliance. Ferocious, fearless, tender and immaculately observed, it’s a propulsive, take-no-prisoners masterclass in voice, style and atmosphere.’ Jae Auxjera, writer and performer
‘Vividly describes the strange beauty, stubborn pride and abject horror of lives brought low and broken.’ Rob True, author of In the Shadow of the Phosphorous Dawn
‘Keshed is a wild, lyrical, journey through the labyrinth of Northern English working-class culture. A story of escape and belonging, hope and loss, this is a beautiful, blazing debut, burning from first page right to last. Hennigan’s language is explosive, baroque; think Henry Miller meets Jim Cartwright and Violette Leduc with the intelligence of Mark Fisher orchestrating the tune.’ Susanna Crossman, author of Home Is Where We Start |
Events 12th February - Book Launch @ Waterstones, Leeds
Publication day! Stu will be in conversation with Terri White at Waterstones Leeds
£5 or £16 with a book |
19th February - Stu Hennigan in conversation @ Serenity Booksellers, Stockport
Stu will be in conversation with Terri White at Serenity Booksellers in Stockport
£5 or £12.99 with a book |
12th March - Stu Hennigan in conversation @ Bàrd Books, London
Stu will be in conversation with Jude Cook at Bàrd Books in East London
£5 |
25th March - Stu Hennigan in conversation @ York Literature Festival
Stu will be in conversation with Naomi Booth at SPARK, York as part of York Literature Festival
£8 |
11th May - Stu Hennigan in conversation @ Blackwells, Manchester
Stu will be in conversation with Thom Cuell at Blackwells, Manchester
£4 or £12.99 with a book |
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In the derelict shell of what was once his family home, a dying man surveys the wreckage of his former life and drinks himself senseless, haunted by the chain of events that led him there.
Dark, complex, and visceral, Keshed is an unflinching character study exploring class, belonging, fatherhood, and conflicting ideals of modern masculinity.At heart, it’s the story of a relationship struggling to cope with the impossible pressures of raising a child under late-stage capitalism; but it’s also a love letter to the working-class North, from the grinding poverty of Thatcher’s ’80s to the present day.
Keshed is published on 12th February.
Cover design by Jack Smyth Author Photo: Stu Hennigan |