Skippy Dies: A Novel (original 2010; edition 2011)

by Paul Murray

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2,237	125	7,015	(3.84)	292
Why does Skippy, a student at Dublin's venerable Seabrook College, end up dead on the floor of the local doughnut shop? Could it have something to do with his friend Ruprecht Van Doren, who is determined to open a portal into a parallel universe using ten-dimensional string theory? Or Carl, the teenage drug dealer who is Skippy's rival in love?… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	exfed
Title:	Skippy Dies: A Novel
Authors:	Paul Murray
Info:	Faber & Faber (2011), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 672 pages
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
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Work Information

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (2010)

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▾Member reviews

English (120) German (2) Dutch (2) French (1) All languages (125)

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Showing 1-5 of 120 (next | show all)

This was a unique story but one that sucked me in pretty quickly. It's set in a modern-day boys boarding school in Dublin and involves young love, time travel, and death. Weird yes, but fantastically written. I highly recommend it. (

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gonzocc | Mar 31, 2024 |

Am amazing and at the same time, terrible, book.

Almost everyone in the book is capable of terrible things. If you think the adolescents are confused about love because they are young and going through puberty, wait until you see what the teachers and priests do.
There are some very funny parts in this book, and other parts that may make you want to throw up…. Sometimes they are the same parts.

The author made me feel sympathy for the devil . I think, in our current inflexible and judgmental society, someone who is good at reminding us that people are human and capable of both the depths of depravity and of acts of shining goodness is a valuable thing. (

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cspiwak | Mar 6, 2024 |

First half was a five, last hundred pages lost me. Still, loved the parts I loved. (

)

nogomu | Oct 19, 2023 |

Here's what I wrote in 2011 about this read: "WOW. What a punch this packs. Totally modern (example, the teens text videos) and broadsweeping. Skippy dies; who contributed and who (all) ignored the signs? Lori and Ruprecht survive and will carry on." A bit surprisingy, I can't recall a thing about it here in 2023. (

)

MGADMJK | Sep 6, 2023 |

This was a fantastic book, probably my favourite book this year. So many different characters and pieces falling in and out of the story. Brilliant, funny, sad, exhausting, I loved every bit of it. (

)

beentsy | Aug 12, 2023 |

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▾Published reviews

2 reviews

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thingScore 100

Six hundred sixty-one pages may seem like a lot to devote to a bunch of flatulence-obsessed kids, but that daunting length is part and parcel of the cause to which “Skippy Dies,” in the end, is most devoted. Teenagers, though they may not always act like it, are human beings, and their sadness and loneliness (and their triumphs, no matter how temporary) are as momentous as any adult’s. And novels about them — if they’re as smart and funny and touching as “Skippy Dies” — can be just as long as they like.

added by Shortride | editThe New York Times, Dan Kois (Sep 5, 2010)

[T]his is an extremely ambitious and complex novel, filled with parallels, with sometimes recondite references to Irish folklore, with quantum physics, and with much more.

added by bell7 | editBooklist, Michael Cart

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (25 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Paul Murray	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Arensman, Dirk-Jan	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Contains

Skippy stirbt. Hopeland (Skippy Dies - Hopeland) by Paul Murray

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Distinctions

Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Fiction – 2010)

Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Fiction: The Top 25 – 2010)

San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year (Fiction – 2010)

Village Voice Favorite Books (2010)

Notable Lists

100 Best Books of 2010-2015 by The Oyster Editors

Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books for Young Adults (2010)

King County Library System Best Books (Fiction Books – 2010)

Notable Books List (Fiction – 2011)

Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year (Fiction (3) – 2010)

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▾Common Knowledge

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Canonical title

Skippy Dies

Original title

Skippy Dies

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2010

People/Characters

Daniel "Skippy" Juster

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

(I) Hopeland: These daydreams persisted like an alternate life ... [Robert Graves]

(II) Heartland: People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. [Albert Einstein]

(III) Ghostland: For where there are Irish there's memory undying, And when we forget, it is Ireland no more! [Rudyard Kipling]

Dedication

For Seán

First words

Skippy and Ruprecht are having a doughnut-eating race one evening when Skippy turns purple and falls off his chair.

Quotations

Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

Life makes fools of us all sooner or later. But keep your sense of humour and you'll at least be able to take your humiliations with some measure of grace. In the end, you know, it's our own expectations that crush us. (S. 628)

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Skippy Dies, without any reference to subtitles or parts, refers to the complete work, which includes the three parts "Hopeland", "Heartland", and "Ghostland". Please do not combine the complete work with any single-part edition. For example, do not combine "Skippy Dies" or "Skippy Dies - Hopeland-Heartland-Ghostland" with "Skippy Dies - Hopeland" or with "Skippy Dies, Part 1".

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Nicholls, David

Original language

Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

Engels

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

Skippy Dies

▾Book descriptions

Why does Skippy, a student at Dublin's venerable Seabrook College, end up dead on the floor of the local doughnut shop? Could it have something to do with his friend Ruprecht Van Doren, who is determined to open a portal into a parallel universe using ten-dimensional string theory? Or Carl, the teenage drug dealer who is Skippy's rival in love?

▾Library descriptions

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▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

‘Skippy and Ruprecht are having a doughnut-eating race one evening when Skippy turns purple and falls off his chair . . .’

And so begins this epic, tragic, comic, brilliant novel set in and around Dublin’s Seabrook College for Boys. Principally concerning the lives, loves, mistakes and triumphs of overweight maths-whiz Ruprecht Van Doren and his roommate Daniel ‘Skippy’ Juster, it features a frisbee-throwing siren called Lori, the joys (and horrors) of first love, the use and blatant misuse of prescription drugs, Carl (the official school psychopath), various attempts to unravel string theory . . . while at the same time exploring the very deepest mysteries of the human heart.

Haiku summary