-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Novel
by Oisín McKenna
For fans of Sally Rooney and Torrey Peters, a stunning debut that follows a vibrant multi-generational cast of characters through a London heatwave as their simmering tensions and secrets come to a head over a feverish, life-changing weekend.
Summer in London stops for no one. Not the half-naked drunks and stoners, the bachelorette parties glugging from bejewelled bottles, the drag queens puffing on hurried cigarettes. It's June 2019, and everyone has converged on the city's parks, beer gardens, and street corners to revel in the collective joys of being alive.
Everyone but Maggie. She's 30, pregnant, and broke. Faced with moving back to the town she fought to escape, she's wondering if having a baby with boyfriend Ed will be the last spontaneous act of her life. Ed, meanwhile, is trying to run from his past with Maggie's best friend Phil and harboring secret dreams of his own.
Phil hates his office job and is living for the weekend, while falling for his housemate, Keith. But there's a problem: Keith has a boyfriend and there might not be room for three people in the relationship. Then there's Rosaleen, Phil's mother, who's tired of feeling like a side character in her own life. She's just been diagnosed with cancer and is travelling to London to tell Phil, if she can ever get hold of him.
As Saturday night approaches, all their lives are set to change forever. Temperatures are soaring and the weekend is about to begin…
Strikingly heartfelt, sexually charged, and disarmingly comic, Oisín McKenna's debut is a mesmerizing dive into the soul of a city and a searing look at what it takes to build a life there.
"A smart debut that feels rooted in the experiences of a generation and establishes McKenna as a gifted writer." —Kirkus Reviews
"McKenna's ornate tapestry is one to savor." —Publishers Weekly
"A tender portrait of contemporary queer London." —The Guardian
"The characters in Evenings and Weekends are almost shockingly alive. I was fascinated by the mix of zeitgeisty humor, wisdom, and existential angst. I have never read a book that captures what London feels like to young people quite so compellingly." —Tomasz Jedrowski, author of Swimming in the Dark
"Evenings and Weekends dives into the heart of a city and its inhabitants with beauty and intellect. The result is a novel brimming with life, confronting the difficult and ugly with a fresh and charming levity. I can't wait to read what McKenna writes next." —Nicola Dinan, author of Bellies
"I tore through Evenings and Weekends, a story which is full of life and rings with passion and hope. A brilliant study of the sins of modern Britain and the energy of contemporary London." —Soula Emmanuel, author of Wild Geese
This information about Evenings and Weekends was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Oisín McKenna was born in Dublin and lives in London. He was awarded the Next Generation Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland to write Evenings and Weekends and it was developed with further funding from Arts Council England. Evenings and Weekends has been awarded a 2022 London Writers Award and in 2017, Oisín was named in the Irish Times as one of the best-spoken word artists in the country. He has written and performed four theatre shows, including ADMIN, an award-winning production at Dublin Fringe 2019, and has written for outlets including the Irish Times on issues such as gentrification and the alienation of Dublin's youth.
If you liked Evenings and Weekends, try these:
by Cynthia Weiner
Published 2026
A dazzling novel about one young woman's summer of infinite possibility...
by Catherine Newman
Published 2023
For lovers of Meg Wolitzer, Maria Semple, and Jenny Offill comes this raucous, poignant celebration of life, love, and friendship at its imperfect and radiant best.
by Francesca Hornak
Published 2018
A warm, wry, sharply observed debut novel about what happens when a family is forced to spend a week together in quarantine over the holidays...
L.A. Women by Ella Berman
Two ambitious writers in 1960s LA face betrayal when one writes a novel based on the other's life.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
