PRE ORDER  Damian Smyth's debut novel  here. 

Folly Lane  - a novel,  is a biographic novel skilfully weaving its weft of narratives and private text, all drawn from the public  world amongst the warp of a modern world in flux, tethered by histories of order chaos and failure. The novel reaches from imperial Rome to 21st century Ireland.

Folly Lane,  a place in Downpatrick, a ‘street’, is a cul-de-sac & pathway, a side road - never a thoroughfare, but a misstep- so maybe a metaphor & a fiction.

Nothing there is owned, not even ‘autobiography’ where ‘i’ is a population of multiple selves, every ampersand reveals another diorama & even formulaic utterances – prayers, invocations, testimonies, mission statements, visions, strategies reveal mesmerising, ‘enchanting’ patterns of expression.

Memorable & telling - moreover, useful.

Within this fiction of self we discover stories, narratives, messages & lessons underpinned by irony, hyperbole & fable in a miasma of satire,

 & Lord knows, even if we don’t look for one, there is inevitably a moral at work…

&

ISBN 9781911132905

Hardback: 179pp

Publication: 31st August 2026