At Sailed-Two-Birds

A lazy and rarely sober student from Dublin spends his days lounging in bed, arguing with his stingy uncle, and — writing a novel. The main character, a second-rate writer who hasn’t been inclined to get out of bed for over twenty years, only reads books with green covers and — of course, writes a novel. So bad that the characters begin to take revenge and — write their own novel, in which their creator will be the protagonist! The proto-postmodern and filled with references to medieval Irish literature, the farcical novel "At Sailed-Two-Birds" (1939) is the debut of the author of "The Third Policeman," "The Singing Detective," and "The Dolky Archive," a hilarious masterpiece whose stylistic exuberance was admired by James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. Before you is a new translation of this landmark of Irish literature with a detailed linguistic and cultural commentary.