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THE INSTANT TOP 10 IRISH BESTSELLER

SHORTLISTED FOR THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2025

AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST OF 2025

‘A triumph … the funniest novel I’ve read in years’ SALLY ROONEY

‘One of my favourite books of the year’ JULIA ARMFIELD

‘A funny and frank coming-of age-drama’
OBSERVER

‘Gorgeous … a writer of immense talent’ MICHAEL MAGEE

John Masterson has no idea what he wants.

It’s his last summer on the small island where he has grown up. He should be enjoying the weeks until his exam results come through, but instead he’s desperately trying to keep his head down after his mother’s nude sext to another man was leaked to the whole island. He’s doing his best to distract himself with his Gaelic football ambitions, going out with his mates and a blossoming, sort-of, romance with his slightly older co-worker Amber.

But soon John must face up to the choices before him: to stand out or fit in and whether to love and let himself be loved, despite, or perhaps because of, the flaws that make us all human.

‘Welcome to the psyche of a teenage boy in all its humorous and hormonal glory’
TELEGRAPH

‘Brilliantly written; as evocative as it is funny. Think: the male version of Sally Rooney’
VOGUE

‘In 20 years of reviewing, I’m not sure I’ve read a funnier book, or one I’ve enjoyed more’
DAILY MAIL

‘A brilliant and bittersweet ode to young love, friendship and GAA’
IRISH TIMES

‘One of the funniest novels I’ve read in years … an utter joy to read’ COLIN BARRETT, author of Wild Houses

‘One of my favourite books of the year’ JULIA ARMFIELD, author of Private Rites

‘Bighearted and boisterous, bursting with life’ COLIN WALSH, author of Kala

John Patrick McHugh’s ‘Fun and Games’ was a Irish top ten bestseller w/c 2025-04-28.

Publisher Review

‘A funny and frank coming-of age-drama, propelled by the heart-swelling comic agony of the protagonist’s incapacity to act without second-guessing the consequences for his social rank’ Observer, ‘The best new novelists for 2025’

‘One of the most exciting writers working in Ireland today’ Sally Rooney, author of Intermezzo

‘One of the funniest novels I’ve read in years. John Patrick McHugh writes with an unerringly acute, mercilessly affectionate eye about the chaotic mores and inescapable entanglements of small town teenage life. This is a lively, bighearted coming of age novel that is an utter joy to read’ Colin Barrett, author of Wild Houses

‘Fun and Games beautifully captures that complicated transitory period between youth and young manhood, and the external pressures one faces … A truly gorgeous novel from a writer of immense talent’ Michael Magee, author of Close to Home

‘Lyrical and at turns funny and heartbreaking, Fun and Games is a startlingly compelling evocation of youthful passion and the often-fraught bonds of family and friendship … bittersweet and brilliant’ Ferdia Lennon, author of Glorious Exploits

‘Fun and Games is a charming, funny and sensitive novel … John Patrick McHugh has a gift for depicting interior life’ Nicole Flattery, author of Nothing Special

‘A completely candid and totally believable tale of late adolescence, with all of its tiny tragedies and tiny triumphs. Heartbreaking and raucous and filled with love, Fun and Games is a joy unconfined’ Aidan Cottrell-Boyce, author of The End of Nightwork

‘A remarkable depiction of burgeoning masculinity … John Patrick McHugh paints a portrait of a young man with vulnerability, compassion, and an illuminating and necessary kind of logic’ Rebecca Watson, author of I Will Crash

‘Bighearted and boisterous, bursting with life … a gorgeous, aching whirligig of a novel’ Colin Walsh, author of Kala

‘McHugh writes with exceptional honesty, nuance and humour’ Caoilinn Hughes, author of The Alternatives