"When McBride, a young Irishman, leaves Co. Monaghan for the building sites of London, and then Germany, he is confronted by a harsh new world and the volatile men who have mastered and mythologised it." "Quickly overwhelmed by the unrelenting quest for work and love, he soon finds himself enslaved to the road ahead, embittered by the cold comforts of its hard shoulder." "But when McBride eventually returns to London, the limits of the heavy digger's life, its quixotic pursuit of the Big Money, its illusory horizons, are brought shockingly and suddenly home."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved