Denton’s richly entertaining debut straddles the present like a dripping colossus. Set in a grim future Ireland where the rain is relentless and the land poisoned, it also harks back to bardic lore, legendary warriors and modernist poetry, and its dystopian heart is illuminated by an epic quest.

It tells of a Dublin dogged by drugs and floods, and under the de facto rule of a gangster called the Earlie King. With the police happy to skulk in corners, his only real threats are a mysterious fire-toting vigilante and the Kid in Yellow, an errand boy who falls in love with the King’s daughter – and becomes the father of her child.

Denton follows the Kid on a strange journey that takes him to the west coast and back, mixing hard-boiled prose with wonderful flashes of lyricism and theatrical interludes.

It sometimes feels too gimmicky for its own good, but Denton spins a fine yarn, and his vision of the future is both believable and gripping, whether he’s portraying a people hooked on drugs and personal devices or a country of ruins, fish farms and icky mutant slugs.

• The Earlie King & the Kid in Yellow is published by Granta. To order a copy for £7.91 (RRP £8.99) go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.