Winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature * Winner of the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year Award * Short-listed for the Costa First Novel Award * Long-listed for the Desmond Elliott Prize * Long-listed for the Guardian First Book Award 2015, Readers' Choice * Long-listed for the Warwick Prize for Writing 2015 * Long-listed for 2015 Edinburgh First Novel Award "A deeply attuned portrait of the human mind...An unsettling literary surprise of the best sort."-- Atlantic "This book is like a flame in daylight: beautiful and unexpected."--Anne Enright It is springtime, and two outcasts--a man ignored, even shunned by his village, and the one-eyed dog he takes into his quiet, tightly shuttered life--find each other, by accident or fate, and forge an unlikely connection. As their friendship grows, their small, seaside town falsely perceives menace where there is only mishap--and the duo must take to the road. Gorgeously written in poetic and mesmerizing prose, S pill Simmer Falter Wither is one of those rare stories that utterly and completely imagines its way into a life most of us would never see. It transforms us in our understanding not only of the world, but also of ourselves. "A man-and-his-dog story like no other."-- San Francisco Chronicle " Spill Simmer Falter Wither ] hums with its own distinctiveness."-- Guardian (UK) "A tour de force...A stunning and wonderful achievement by a writer touched by greatness." --Joseph O'Connor, for the Irish Times