SOURCE: A review of The Butcher Boy, in Bloomsbury Review, January/February, 1994, p. 23.

In the following review, von Mueller praises McCabe's The Butcher Boy as “an absolute masterpiece.”

Imagine a world seen through the eyes of a little boy lost in the kaleidoscopic maze of fear and grief. Imagine a world where small-town sensibilities and pop-culture flotsam collide with childish fancy and lethal rage. Such is the world of The Butcher Boy.

Patrick McCabe's newest novel created quite a stir when it appeared across the water. The Butcher Boy won kudos and wowed critics throughout England and Ireland, garnering the 1992 Irish Times' Aer Lingus Prize. Now, thanks to Fromm International, American audiences can experience one of the most chilling reads to emerge in a long, long time.

Francie Brady lives in a small Irish town, the son of an alcoholic trumpeter and his manic wife. His story, told...