"Exploring Dublin's every corner in a first-of-its-kind portrayal of the city since the boom, The First Verse Peers through the eyes of a young gay man seduced by a secret society's ancient reading rituals. Barry McCrea gives readers a tale of obsession and paranoia, and a portrait of the new Ireland." "When freshman Niall Lenihan moves to Trinity College, he becomes fascinated with a reclusive pair of older students - literary "mystics" who use random lines from books to determine their actions. Reluctantly, they admit him to their sessions, and what begins as an intriguing game for Niall becomes a dramatic and addictive quest for identity, companionship, and a cult's shadowy origins in the pages of literature and the people of a city."--BOOK JACKET