Author with Kildare links praised for debut novel

An author who grew up in Kildare has published his debut novel.

Declan Toohey, who was born in Scotland but was raised in Kilcock, has been praised for his book, Perpetual Comedown. 

The book is about a doctoral student at Trinity College Dublin, Darren Walton, who is trying to decode an elaborate conspiracy he stumbled across as an undergraduate.

To do so he must locate an alternate Ireland named Camland, the existence of which is proven when he discovers a literary journal whose contents mirror his own past.

With proof of his wild theories, Darren is sure academic fame is imminent.

But for this he is willing to sacrifice not just his sanity and physical safety, but also his relationships with the ones who love him most.

Publishers New Island said: "Toohey weaves a contemporary yarn of academic intrigue and youthful irreverence, sexual fluidity and neurodiversity.

"Experimental, trippy, hilarious, compassionate, Perpetual Comedown is a riotous reckoning in the construction of the self."

Toohey's iction has been published in Soft Punk, Channel, and the anthology Queer Love, among other outlets.

In 2021 he was a co-winner of the IWC Novel Fair, and in 2022 he won the Maeve Binchy Travel Award and received an Agility Award from the Arts Council of Ireland.

More recently, he graduated from University College Dublin with an MFA in Fiction.