Silverback

Phil Harrison

In a Belfast courtroom Robert Rusting is on trial for the murder of his father, a former loyalist hardman. On the jury is James Fechner, a middle-aged surgeon finding himself in search of meaning in the hushed rooms of justice. Rusting is acquitted, but Fechner can't quite return to life before those days in court.

Having found himself drawn to Rusting, Fechner compulsively searches him out in dingy pubs, following an inexplicable pull to the younger man's aggressive, unapologetic way of life. So begins a close friendship, a relationship in which a battle for control is tacit but unspoken - and explosive.

Silverback is a powerful portrayal of toxic masculinity and of the line between fragility and violence written in an unforgettable voice.