The "sudden" of the title could as well be "strange" so darkly surreal is the world that Healy creates. This is the story of Sligo-born Ollie Ewing, who goes off to work in the building sites of London and ends up down a cul-de-sac of horror, where the living transform to dead, and from which he escapes just in time. In Sligo, Ewing pushes trolleys for the local supermarket and tries to calm his demons by detaching himself from reality. We learn his story in fragments, inching carefully towards the reasons why he left London. Ollie Ewing will stay hopping in your head like a sad flea after you've finished this haunting book.
