The Wrong Heroes

The Wrong Heroes is the powerful debut collection from Dublin writer Eamon McGuinness. Exploring major themes such as illness, personal loss, grief, love and fatherhood, the poems move through various physical and emotional landscapes, from suburban Dublin to Paris, Rome, and Spain. The work has a firm international outlook while also examining domestic and intensely private issues. The heroes of the title are alluded to and constantly questioned while the poet's place in the world is interrogated through a series of life events, both big and small, all of which hold significant meaning for the writer – the death of a parent, the killing of a mouse, a neighbor complaining about weeds and sleepless nights with a new-born. The Wrong Heroes is a book of serious intent and marks the arrival of a distinct and mature voice.

"In this stunning debut, McGuinness' articulation of vulnerability deeply resonates. His shield is lowered as he explores his grief, maturation and renewal; yet the humanity in these poems is piercing." — E.M. REAPY, novelist

"The narrative ecologies in Eamon McGuinness’s fine debut The Wrong Heroes are cultivated with an honest search for meaning, and a lyric impulse which both eulogizes and celebrates the rapidly changing landscapes of selfhood, citizenship, and society. In these poems, which have at their core a moral integrity to say what is true, a trustworthy voice emerges which transcribes the movements from youth to maturity, from longing to fulfillment, and from grief to precious remembrance. Local, Irish, and European – Eamon McGuinness’s poetry is deft, and empathetic. Here is a poet who cares. Love one another, the thematic bass-line of this collection goes. And mind yourself. This world, this life, is precious after all. And fleeting too." — PAUL PERRY, author of Gunpowder Valentine: New and Selected Poems