Reviews
Ultimately, this is a book about how everyone has a story worth telling, and one worth hearing too. Terrific stuff'
Independent
MacNeil shows himself hugely adept at creating a series of distinctive literary voices, and skilfully weaves these various set-pieces into the main narrative before finally poleaxing the reader with a completely unexpected tragicomic final act . . . a wise warm-hearted meditation on the human condition'
Scotsman
Reading The Brilliant & Forever, I felt I was in possession of something really special, far bigger than the sum of its words… It is truly original & memorable, heartbreaking & funny, a bit like life itself...'
Vivian Bannerman, Main Street Trading Company
Full of wry detail and satirical flourish, a demonstration of virtuoso storytelling. MacNeil atomises the process of othering by which communities define themselves. All of that makes it sound overly serious, which it isn’t: MacNeil’s prose style keeps things light, lyrical, and funny'
The Skinny
Lyrical, satirical, funny and utterly, utterly heartbreaking'
Heat Magazine
It is a joy to read such an engaging, luminous novel'
The Guardian
About the Book
On an island like no other, populated by writers, the annual Brilliant & Forever Festival is a much anticipated event; its participants a story away from either glory or infamy. This year, three best friends - two human, one alpaca - are chosen to compete, so victory is not only about reward. This is a novel like no other; a wonderful, provocative tussle, a whip-cracking, energetic, laugh-out-loud satire on what we value in culture, and in our lives. And yet, written with exquisite warmth and empathy, it's also a moving exploration of integrity, friendship and belonging. It'll split your sides and break your heart.
The Author
Kevin MacNeil
Kevin MacNeil was born and raised in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Novelist, poet, playwright, editor, aphorist and lyricist, his books include The Stornoway Way, Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides and Be Wise Be Otherwise. He is currently working on an album with William Campbell, a new novel, a film, a play and a travelogue-memoir based on his 1,300km cycle down the Danube in September 2009 for two cancer charities. Kevin has held a number of prestigious writing residencies in Scotland and continental Europe. He is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. His awards include: the Tivoli Europa Giovani International Poetry Prize; the inaugural Iain Crichton Smith Writing Fellow; a J.B. Priestley Award; and a Millennium Quality Award.
