Making Nice - Hardcover

"Mr. Sumell’s savage humor is thrilling" (New York Times)

"Making Nice has an anarchic humour and a goofy, ingenious humanity that makes every page feel new" (Guardian)

"Alby’s voice is perfect... A truly original portrayal of grief" (Bookmunch)

"Gloriously funny" (Literary Review)

"You find yourself laughing aloud and wincing, if not outright groaning at the same time... Magnificent" (Irish Examiner)

A gut-punch of a debut about love and loss, and fighting for – and with – the only family you’ve got.

Alby’s flailing wildly against the world around him. He punches his sister (she deserved it), gets drunk and picks fights (all deserved), defends defenceless creatures large and small, and spews insults at children, slow drivers, old ladies and every single surviving member of his family.

With electrifying honesty and sly tenderness, Alby distills the anguish, the terror, the humour, and the strange grace he experiences in the aftermath of his mother’s death. But as he drinks, screws, and jokes his way through his pain and heartache, both his anger and his kindness bubble up when he, and we, least expect it.