One of our favourite Irish reads of recent years is getting the TV treatment

This is going to be a good one.

Channel 4 has commissioned Close to Home, a new four-part drama series produced by the multi-Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA winning Element Pictures, a Fremantle company (Normal People, Bugonia). Based on Michael Magee’s debut novel, which received the prestigious 2023 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the Nero Prize for Debut Fiction 2024, Close to Home revels in the reckless decadence of youth and celebrates a generation growing up in the wake of the Troubles. A striking tale of love, trauma and finding your place in the scarred city you call home.

Adapted for the screen by Michael Magee, the series will be directed by Diarmuid Goggins (Code of Silence). Leading the cast will be Anthony Boyle (Say Nothing, House of Guinness) as Sean, Jessica Reynolds (A Woman of Substance, Kneecap) as Mairéad, Seamus O’Hara (House of Guinness, Say Nothing) as Anthony, and Oisín Thompson (Trespasses) as Ryan.

Close to Home tells the story of Sean, a young man who finds himself back in Belfast. Back from university and back into old habits. Back on the mad all-nighters, the borrowed tenners and missing rent, the casual jobs that always fall through. Back with his brother, his ma and all the things they never talk about. Back where the promised prosperity of peacetime has yet to arrive and every street has a story to tell. One night, Sean assaults a stranger at a party and everything is tipped into chaos.

Of the project, Michael Magee says: “Developing Close to Home for television has been an intensely fulfilling creative experience, a dream come true, really, and I’m incredibly grateful to Michael Dawson and Clare Dwyer Hogg for all the work they’ve done with me on the scripts, and to Diarmuid Goggins and Gemma Boswell and the whole team at Element and Channel 4 for the passion and creative energy they’ve put into bringing this story to life.”

Filming is set to begin this month in Belfast, and though a release date may remain far in the future, you’ve got ample opportunity to catch up on the genuinely excellent book.