Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year

Shortlist 2025

Frogs For Watchdogs

By Seán Farrell

A wild child with a ferocious imagination will stop at nothing to protect his family. After years of moving from place to place, a young family finds shelter in an isolated house in the Irish countryside. Their father is missing, Mum is a healer and B a formidable big sister. In his strange new territory, a wild little boy gives voice to his experience.

Jerry Drain, a local famer, is stealing hay from the barn, someone is making nasty phone calls to the house at night and darkness is gathering at the edges of their lives. With his ferocious imagination the boy will do everything in his power to protect his family. But Jerry will not go away and Mum seems to be falling under his spell. It will be a year of major wins and baffling defeats for the boy, as Jerry’s true nature insists on revealing itself.

Dark, funny, tender and raw, Frogs for Watchdogs thrums with the intensity of childhood. Above all, it is an ode to the blended family: the bewildering joy, wary safety and profound new bonds of love.

About Seán Farrell...

Seán Farrell was born and brought up in Ireland. After graduating from Cambridge University, he spent fifteen years in France. As well as writing, he also works as a freelance editor. He lives in Sligo with his wife, the writer Elske Rahill, and their four children. Frogs for Watchdogs is his first novel.

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