Phil Harrison

Discover the rock-bottom moments in the histories of 19 disparate football clubs, through stories rich in colour and context that rarely have a happy ending – but which every fan can relate to. By Phil Harrison, author of the critically acclaimed Inside the Hermit Kingdom: Football Stories from Stalinist Albania – as featured by The Guardian and Daily Mail.Showcasing a miscellany of spectacularly diverse stories from the last five decades from across Europe, this unique book includes:Six guest chapters featuring the pained recollections of established authors (Alex Ireland, Miguel Lourenço Pereira, Paul McQuade), ex-professional footballers (Richard Shaw), musicians (Jonny and Tom Foster; Hardwicke Circus) and social media influencers (Michael Hamlen)Tales involving many of Europe''s biggest clubs: Ajax, Barcelona, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Celtic, Manchester United and City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Aston Villa and many moreA close look at the meteoric, single-season rise and fall of Bayer 04, Barcelona''s abortive attempt to quell the demons of Francoist Spanish rule, Ajax''s staggering 2014 KNVB Cup Final fail, the end of Manchester City''s first golden era and Arsenal''s 70-game traipse towards oblivionFilled with accounts of the bad and the ugly football experiences that changed the lives of fans – and not in a good way – this gripping book serves as a reminder that football, for most fans, is a perpetual vortex of anguish, near misses and abject disappointment.

'Visceral and unpredictable, Silverback is doing what novels do best . . . Told with real intelligence, skill and compassion, this is a seriously impressive novel' COLIN WALSH'Silverback is both a murder mystery and a knottily impressive portrait of a peculiarly Ulster form of masculinity' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH'Highly original . . . Many novels about The Troubles depict the horrors that take place on the street. This one, set at an intriguing remove, exposes the more ambiguous horrors gnawing within' DAILY MAILIn a Belfast courtroom Robert Rusting is on trial for the murder of his father, a former loyalist hardman. On the jury is James Fechner, a middle-aged surgeon in search of meaning in the hushed rooms of justice, inexplicably drawn to the younger man before him. After trial, Fechner can't quite return to life before those days in court. In dingy pubs and rowdy boxing halls Fechner inserts himself into Rusting's world in another guise, following a compulsive pull to an aggressive, unapologetic way of life. So begins a close friendship, a relationship in which a battle for control is tacit but unspoken - and explosive. Silverback is a powerful portrayal of the complications of masculinity and of the line between fragility and violence told in an unforgettable voice.