A TIGER IN EDEN

A TIGER IN EDEN is about tough Irishman Billy, on the run from the Belfast police, lying low in Thailand. He's making the most of the expansive beaches and cheap drinks - not to mention the sexy young backpackers - and trying to forget his troubles. All is well until a stay in a Buddhist retreat. There, Billy realises that no matter how far you travel, your past will always catch up with you.

It's a raucous debut, full of sex, drugs and barroom brawls, told in a singular voice and with great humour. The perfect backpacker read, A TIGER IN EDEN has drawn comparisons with TRAINSPOTTING and THE BEACH.

Chris Flynn is books editor at the Big Issue and fiction consultant at Australian Book Review. The former publisher of Torpedo magazine, he writes for the Age, Australian, Paris Review and ABC Radio National, and is editing a forthcoming issue of McSweeney's partly devoted to Indigenous Australian fiction. He grew up in Belfast and lives in Melbourne.