Chosen as a Book of the Year (historical fiction) in 2011 by Library Journal!

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"I haven't a enjoyed a novel so much since Benioff's City of Thieves." John Valliant, author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce

“A frightening, funny, moving, page-turning romp.” Steven Galloway, author of The Cellist of Sarajevo

“Weir’s unique retelling of the Gospels, set in mid-19th-century London, is Charles Dickens meets Thom Jones… A knockout debut.” National Post

See what everyone is saying about Daniel O'Thunder.

• Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best First Book Award
• Shortlisted for the Amazon Annual First Novel Award
• Shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize

A rollicking, comic and ultimately haunting tale of fist-fighting, faith and fine madness

In the 1850s, in the slums of the great city of London, Daniel O’Thunder, a troubled but charismatic former prize-fighter turned evangelist, runs a safe house for those in need of food, shelter, prayer and good counsel. But in London’s dark streets, an ancient evil is wreaking havoc, throwing into peril the lives of its most vulnerable souls. O’Thunder, getting on in years but still wielding a right fist dubbed “The Hammer of Heaven”, returns to the ring to start training for his greatest fight yet – with the Devil himself.

Surrounding O’Thunder is a strange collection of people who love him: Jack, a spectacularly failed cleric and worse actor who is the compiler of O’Thunder’s story; J.T.”Jaunty” Rennert, one-time recruiting sergeant, shady small-time operator and O’Thunder’s self-styled best friend; and Nell, the gold-hearted, foul-mouthed young prostitute who ultimately carries her love for O’Thunder into the wilds of the Cariboo gold-rush in faraway British Columbia, where the novel reaches its extraordinary apotheosis.

Daniel O’Thunder is a novel of amazing wealth of character and variety of voice. Comedy bumps up against cruelty, tragedy against farce, inhumanity against love—a dazzling debut that is hilarious, harrowing, and deeply moving.