Oisín McKenna in conversation with Nicola Dinan - Trafalgar Square

Join us as we welcome Oisín McKenna, in conversation with Nicola Dinan, to celebrate the release of Oisin's debut novel Evenings And Weekends.‘A masterpiece. This searing tale of love, sex and class will resonate for generations to come.’OWEN JONESA radical, literary soap opera meets contemporary community novel set over the course of one blisteringly hot weekend in London: from a remarkable new voice in literary fiction.Summer in London stops for no-one. Not the half-naked boozers, stoners, and cruisers, the hen parties glugging from bejewelled bottles, the drag queens puffing on hurried fags. It’s June 2019, and everyone has converged on the city’s parks, beer gardens and street corners to revel in the collective joys of being alive.Everyone but Maggie. She’s 30, pregnant and broke. Faced with moving back to the town she fought to escape, she’s wondering if having a baby with boyfriend Ed will be the last spontaneous act of her life. Ed, meanwhile, is trying to run from his past with Maggie’s best friend Phil and harbouring secret dreams of his own.Phil hates his office job and is living for the weekend, while falling for his housemate, Keith. But there’s a problem: Keith has a boyfriend and there might not be room for three people in the relationship. Then there’s Rosaleen, Phil’s mother, who’s tired of feeling like a side character in her own life. She’s just been diagnosed with cancer and is travelling to London to tell Phil, if she can ever get hold of him.As Saturday night approaches, all their lives are set to change forever. It’s the hottest summer on record and the weekend is about to begin…

Oisín McKenna grew up in Drogheda, Ireland, and lives in London. He was awarded the Next Generation Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland to write Evenings and Weekends – the highest award for an emerging artist in Ireland – and it was developed with further funding from Arts Council England. Evenings and Weekends has been awarded a 2022 London Writers Award, which supports London’s most promising underrepresented writers. In 2017, Oisín was named in the Irish Times one of the best-spoken word artists in the country. He has written and performed four theatre shows, including ADMIN, an award-winning production at Dublin Fringe 2019, and has written for outlets including the Irish Times on issues such as gentrification and the alienation of Dublin’s youth.Nicola Dinan grew up in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur and now lives in London. Bellies, her debut, was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and shortlisted for the Mo Siewcharran Prize. Her second novel, Disappoint Me, will be released in 2025.

Event Venue

Waterstones, Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom