'John Maher's debut novel compels through its subtle emphasis on the need to remain open to plural readings of history and culture, so that the power of the past to determine the future might be mitigated.
Recurring references to sectarian clashes in Ulster, Chartist distur-bances in London and "trouble in the Punjab" evoke a sense of simmering crisis that has clear contemporary resonances. Far from emphasising the re-moteness of the past, The Luck Penny brings it into propinquity with the present and suggests that change and reconciliation, both personal and po-litical, must be predicated on an affective understanding of actual as op-posed to imaginary others.' The Irish Times 'John Maher confirms himself as one of Irish writing's bright stars with this meditation on death. A superbly executed story about bereavement told through characters that intrigue from the first. There's a contemplative immediacy to The Luck Penny from the start you care about what happens to its central characters and its linguistic abundance has a wide appeal. Maher is a writer concerned with placing his story in a period in Ireland that reflects the ignorance and gombeenism of the past, but also its religious and political hopefulness.
The Luck Penny is an outstanding Irish novel for the wider English-reading world because ultimately it's the exploration of the universality of death and its sometime corollary of redemption. Maher is clearly a writer of sufficient gift to create a vision capable of emphasising such intention to his readership.
The author of the short story collection, The Coast of Malabar is surely destined to eclipse his already substantial reputation with this excep-tionally realised novel. Superb matter. Sunday Tribune
'An expertly crafted, tender tale of grief, language and land... London wheezes with cholera yet whirrs dizzily with life, while the Irish countryside hums with secrets, superstition and political unrest. The characterisation is deftly observed the social mores of the day, the prejudices and cultural differences are beautifully illuminated in the interplay between coloniser and colonised... The contrasting roles that ring throughout the story – the poised, restrained yet rich inflections of the English settlers, the musical and roman-tic, yet earthly Irish lilt and the ancient, impenetrable Babylonian text – inter-weave to create a compelling study of a world where it truly does take all sorts. A richly rewarding read.'Metro
'John Maher's novel The Luck Penny, which lyrically and intelligently anatomises the soul of an age not entirely dissimilar to our own, the mid-19th century, when the world shot forward at a spectacular rate of knots, ushering in coal and steel and cholera in the process. A story of the modern age in bygone times by a modern mind in touch with the future/' Patrick McCabe, The Sunday Tribune
'Beautifully written... Maher writes with wonderful sympathy and insight... Mrs Tours and Eliza Drew, with all their worries and problems come across as particularly intriguing and arresting creations... He is equally strong on evincing the religious, class and linguistic divisions that hold the townspeople apart... The Luck Penny is the work of a dedicated and gifted writer who has plenty to say.' Sunday Business Post
John Maher is a complex and intriguing writer. As high-class entertain-ment this is seriously comic storytelling. Irish Independent
An accomplished confection of death, trauma, psychosis, paranoia, illicit love, colonial power and native subversion. Irish Book Review
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The Luck Penny 
