Thomas
McMullan
Writer and artist
Novel
The Last Good Man (2020, Bloomsbury)
Buy
uk.bookshop.org, Waterstones, Foyles, Amazon
Awards
WINNER: Betty Trask Prize 2021
Praise
'A SCARLET LETTER for our times: THE LAST GOOD MAN, by Thomas McMullan. Zamyatin's WE meets LORD OF THE FLIES meets De Toqueville meets cancel culture meets Spite+Malice meets Jesus. Should words be power? Justice or Mercy? What price rage? Much to ponder!'
- MARGARET ATWOOD
'An extraordinary and disquieting work of imagination, and as original as any novel I've read in recent memory'
- ROB DOYLE
Reviews
THE GUARDIAN: *Book of the day* 'A dark, compelling novel about the only two things humans really have to fear: each other, and being alone ... McMullan has a sureness with violence that puts him in the company of Sarah Moss and Benjamin Myers...The Last Good Man is viciously captivating: frightening to be around, impossible to put aside.'
THE INDEPENDENT: "[A] brilliantly unsettling parable about how we police our societies through violence, language and shame"
THE IRISH TIMES: "Innovative and timeless... eerie and atmospheric"
THE METRO: "An arresting debut…a clean, crackling novel"
NEW STATESMAN: "A visceral and disquieting debut novel about the power of words...should be read by anyone who uses the internet."
3:AM MAGAZINE: "An impressively taut, thoughtful novel... He writes with a muscular lyricism; the book’s moral gaze is both pitiless and ambivalent."
MAIL ON SUNDAY: "[A] thought-provoking debut... A shivery sense of menace exerts steady fascination in McMullan’s dark allegory of the social-media age."
THE DAILY MAIL: "McMullan makes highly effective use of the rugged landscape, full of unease and portents, in his creepily unsettling debut, a timely tale about the dangers of toxic rhetoric and mob rule."
LUNATE: "The Last Good Man is an essential and commanding slice of folk horror — a wholly successful exercise in world-building that straddles an uncomfortable line between reality and fantasy."
NB MAGAZINE: "[An] earthy, gripping piece. The Last Good Man is… a serious and seriously good book."
SET THE TAPE: "McMullan’s skill truly lies in his prose…a startling and evocative tale"
ON MAGAZINE: "An unsettling and startling work of literary imagination….a shocking but compulsive read"
Short fiction
Mackrell piece (2023)
In response to William Mackrell’s exhibition, Strip,
Lungley Gallery: Read
The only thing is certain is (2016)
Best British Short Stories 2016: Buy, Read
Lighthouse: Buy
Tex and the Clouds (2016)
Der Standard [German]: Read
Unreal City: Constructing the Capital (Cours de Poétique): Read
Fun (2016)
Lighthouse: Buy
The Photographer's Heap (2015)
Minor Literature[s]: Read
Jim Froydon's Lines (2015)
3:AM Magazine: Read
A Wall on Dartmoor (2015)
The Stockholm Review: Read
Flash Europa 28, Chosen by The British Council as a representative of the UK. Translated into Chinese: Read
The Bodybuilders (2014)
The Literateur
Two Buckets (2012)
Cadaverine Magazine: Buy, Listen, Watch
The Clock (2011)
Mint Magazine
National Event (2009)
Tengen Magazine: Read
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