Home Work

Hogan, Edward (2023). Home Work. Manchester International Fiction Prize.

URL: https://www.mmu.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2023-11/...

Abstract

'Home Work' is a fiction short story of 2500 words which was shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Prize 2022 and the Manchester Fiction Prize 2023 (as part of which it was published online). It tells of the incipient housebreaking career of a young man growing up in the Midlands in the 1990s. It details his early attempts at burglary, his semi-professionalisation, and the potential catastrophe of an accidental housefire.

The story is part of a cycle which explores masculinity and work in contemporary Britain. In this case, the protagonist feels bereft of legitimate opportunities (the earnings from a YTS apprenticeship do not compare to the money to be made from fencing wares), and he becomes addicted to the thrill and intimacy of housebreaking. He develops an unofficial professional code, in his work.

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