From the award-winning author of The Butcher Boy comes a new novel of extraordinary power that, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, confirm[s] McCabes standing as one of the most brilliant writers to ever come out of Ireland.In The Dead School, Patrick McCabe returns to the emotionally dense landscape of small-town Ireland to explore the inner lives of two men: a headmaster and a schoolteacher, each man the product of a soul-stifling culture, each battling his own demons of loss and betrayal. Tension coils–until tragedy strikes a young student in their charge, and the latent despair and rage that has festered in their hearts explodes onto the page.