Keshed

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, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award

Profane, darkly funny, unflinching in its focus on the wreckage of ordinary lives: Henngian is a voice we need. Naomi Booth, author of raw content and Exit Management

Keshed is a beautiful, visceral, gut-punch of a novel. This heart-rending study of modern masculinity, fatherhood, class and the liminality of social mobility is a story of wastedeness: a wasted body, brain, talent, life and love. Original in both subject matter and form, Keshed is timely and urgent. Hennigan is one of the country's finest writers on the confluence of capitalism and class. He is also the master of sharp prose. I urge people to read this brilliant book. 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

Stu Hennigan is a writer, poet and musician from the north of England. His book Ghost Signs (Bluemoose, 2022) was shortlisted for best non-fiction at the Books Are My Bag Awards and Best Political Book By A Non-Parliamentarian at the Parlimentary Book Awards in 2022/3. His short fiction, essays, poetry, criticism and articles have been published widely in print and online. Keshed is his first novel.