num_pages: 661
description: A tragic comedy of epic sweep and dimension Skippy Dies wrings every last drop of humour and hopelessness out of life love mermaids M-theory the poetry of Robert Graves and all the mysteries of the human heart.Why does Skippy a fourteen-year-old boy at Dublin's venerable Seabrook College end up dead on the floor of the local doughnut shop? Could it have something to do with his friend Ruprecht Van Doren an overweight genius who is determined to open a portal into a parallel universe using ten-dimensional string theory? Could it involve Carl the teenage drug dealer and borderline psychotic who is Skippys rival in love? Or could the Automator the ruthless smooth-talking headmaster intent on modernizing the school have something to hide? Why Skippy dies and what happens next is the subject of this dazzling and uproarious novel unraveling a mystery that links the boys of Seabrook College to their parents and teachers in ways nobody could have imagined. With a cast of characters that ranges from hip-hop-loving fourteen-year-old Eoin MC Sexecutioner Flynn to basketball-playing midget Philip Kilfether packed with questions and answers on everything from Ritalin to M-theory to bungee jumping to the hidden meaning of the poetry of Robert Frost Skippy Dies is a heartfelt hilarious portrait of the pain joy and occasional beauty of adolescence and a tragic depiction of a world always happy to sacrifice its weakest members. As the twenty-first century enters its teenage years this is a breathtaking novel from a young writer who will come to define his generation.
language: English
title: Skippy Dies
publisher: Hamish Hamilton