Known for his mostly dark and violent novels set in contemporary—often small-town—Ireland, McCabe has been twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, for The Butcher Boy (1992) and Breakfast on Pluto (1998), both of which have been made into films.
[citation needed] Aged 17 he migrated to London and worked as a teacher, returning to Ireland after finding success as a writer.
The play Frank Pig Says Hello, which he adapted from The Butcher Boy, was first performed at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1992.
as "Strangely elegiac, gloriously operatic and driven by (...) wild and savage imagination, (...) an eerie folk tale that chronicles the passing of a generation."
Director and novelist Neil Jordan has adapted both The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto into films.