The Book of Judas

Book excerpt: Brendan Kennelly's Book of Judas, a 400-page epic poem in twelve parts, became the number one bestselling book in Ireland. As well as receiving rapturous reviews, Brendan Kennelly won the Sunday Independent/Irish Life Award for the book and earned the ultimate accolade of 'Kerryman of the Year'. Not merely lost but irredeemable, Kennelly's bitterly articulate Judas speaks, dreams and murmurs - of past and present, history and myth, good and evil, of men, women and children, and of course money - until we realise that the unspeakable perpetrator of the apparently unthinkable, in penetrating the icy reaches of his own world, becomes a sly, many-voiced critic of ours. The full-sized Book of Judas is no longer available, usurped by The Little Book of Judas, a distillation of that literary monster, purged to its traitorous essence.