Emerald Underground, Michael Collins

Liam, a fallen angel with a bad track record, has arrived in America through the back door, an illegal immigrant stuck with the worst kind of job and a reputation for trouble. Forced on the run, he links up with another fallen star, a beautiful, pregnant girl called Angel. Hampered, yet spurred on, by Angel's lowlife boyfriend, Liam finds the wide open spaces bring him a freedom not advertised by the immigration brokers back home - and the chance to run towards the life he had always dreamed of. Michael Collins writes with his characteristic rawness and anger about the Irish in 80s America. He brings a new poignancy to our understanding of the emigrant experience and of the loneliness of not belonging.