'An exquisite and powerful debut novel from a compelling new voice in Irish fiction' - Joseph O'Connor
‘The lad is a bit like a stray dog. I keep an eye on him and throw him a few scraps. There are plenty of people in this town who'd just as soon drop him off in the wilderness and hope there's no scent to follow home. The problem is that Patrick could find his way out of any wilderness and they wouldn't like whatever starved thing came back.’
Sergeant Jim Field feels a guilty paternalism for Patrick Hatten, a young man struggling to find a job, a life and a purpose in a small-town Wexford community. Both are used to being on the fringes but while Jim is a romantic with bad health and regret, Patrick is full of anger and action, and his actions could have devastating effects.
“'The Visit is an engrossing and tender portrait of a small town under pressure ... Stark and elemental - at the heart of the novel is a sort of quiet yearning and a longing for love and for completion that makes Neil Tully's novel so brilliant and intriguing”
— Colm Tóibín
“Once in a while, you read a novel so accomplished that you want to read the author's backlist but, to your surprise, it turns out to be a debut. That's how good Neil Tully's The Visit is. Combining great storytelling with lyrical writing, this deserves to be on everyone's must-read list for 2026”
— John Boyne
“What a delight it is to read such a wonderful story, written so beautifully. Spare, authentic, effortlessly lyrical, it is a stunning novel, the work of a writer of the first order”
— Donal Ryan
“A considerable feat of the imagination, a proper story beautifully, delicately written and gripping from first page to last”
— Billy O’Callaghan
“Utterly absorbing”
—Elaine Feeney
“Intrigue boils beneath the rural calm of this elegant novel…the prose is intelligent, gorgeous and empathic; the atmosphere subtly unsettling. The Visit is an accomplished, fully formed début'“
— Nuala O'Connor, author of Seaborne and NORA
About NEIL
Neil grew up in County Mayo. He has won several prizes for short fiction and holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Limerick. He lives in Cork with his wife. The Visit is his first book.
ContacT
Agent: Simon Trewin, simon@simontrewin.co.uk
Contact Neil using the contact form