"This sparkling first novel focuses on the intertwined lives of three Londoners and their friends and family, largely over the course of a single weekend in June 2019...In another pair of hands, the compressed timeline and the size of the cast could have made for a disjointed reading experience, but McKenna toggles among the different characters and storylines with aplomb. What emerges is an empathetic portrait of millennials trying to build lives for themselves amid social, political, and ecological change...A smart debut that feels rooted in the experiences of a generation and establishes McKenna as a gifted writer." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"This vivid realist novel adroitly maneuvers a sprawling interlocking cast around the hipster haunts of north and east London, including Kingsland Road, London Fields and the Hampstead Heath swimming ponds…His electric, broadbrush vignettes of urban life recall Kae Tempest’s novel The Bricks That Built the Houses and Vivian Gornick’s memoirs. For even as it utters a howl of rage at broken, late-capitalist Britain, Evenings and Weekends is a love letter to the city – the chance it offers to forge your own identity, and the interconnectedness of urban life. A tender portrait of contemporary queer London." — The Guardian
"A bit like the book version of a Richard Curtis film, but with more grit, more bathroom sex and a literal beached whale." — GQ
“This is such a love story to cities & people & heartbreaks, death & loss. It's not at all corny, it's smart. But I just finished it & it made me cry.” — Eileen Myles
"McKenna’s ornate tapestry is one to savor." — Publishers Weekly
"A masterpiece: this searing tale of class, love and sex will resonate for generations to come." — Owen Jones
"The aching, swelling humanity of this book swallowed me whole." — Saba Sams, author of Send Nudes
“The characters in Evenings and Weekends are almost shockingly alive. I was fascinated by the mix of zeitgeisty humor, wisdom, and existential angst. I have never read a book that captures what London feels like to young people quite so compellingly.” — Tomasz Jedrowski, author of Swimming in the Dark
“Evenings and Weekends dives into the heart of a city and its inhabitants with beauty and intellect. The result is a novel brimming with life, confronting the difficult and ugly with a fresh and charming levity. I can’t wait to read what McKenna writes next.” — Nicola Dinan, author of Bellies
"This book was a thrill. Zadie Smith-esque in its kaleidoscope of London and incisively political but only in the most generous, specific, and lived-in way; That Oisín can write a book so steeped in identity politics and yet so casually chaotic and real is a testament to his imaginative generosity and sense of scale. I could go on and on and on. Compassionate, intelligent, hilarious. This book will win prizes. I enjoyed it so much." — Niamh Campbell, author of This Happy, winner of the Rooney Fiction Prize
"‘I tore through Evenings and Weekends, a story which is full of life and rings with passion and hope. A brilliant study of the sins of modern Britain and the energy of contemporary London." — Soula Emmanuel, author of Wild Geese
"Summer is almost upon us. By the end of it… Evenings and Weekends, will surely be a much-thumbed book atop many bedside stacks and best-of lists. With it, yet another brilliant Irish voice announces their presence in contemporary literature…Intoxicating… Evenings and Weekends is a wonderful, almost engulfing reading experience." — Irish Times
"McKenna’s book captures what it feels like to be worn out by the constant calculations, and adjustments and uncertainties that so often underpin a London life." — Independent
