Michael Collins 
Emerald Underground 

A novel of maturity and rare beauty – by an author shortlisted for the 2000 Booker Prize.Liam, a fallen angel with a bad track record, has arrived in America through the back door, an illegal immigrant stuck with the worst kind of job and a reputation for trouble. Forced on the run, he links up with another fallen star, a beautiful, pregnant girl called Angel. Hampered, yet spurred on, by Angel’s lowlife boyfriend, Liam finds the wide open spaces bring him a freedom not advertised by the immigration brokers back home, and the chance to run towards the life he had always dreamed of. Michael Collins writes with his characteristic rawness and anger about the Irish in ’80s America. He brings a new poignancy to our understanding of the emigrant experience and of the loneliness of not belonging.