Roy Keane's second autobiography has lived up to its publisher's great expectations, selling 10,742 copies in Irish bookstores in the first three days of its launch, more than 9,000 more than Ivan Yates's autobiography, Full On, its nearest rival in the hardback non-fiction category.
Gone Girl, the thriller by Gillian Flynn, whise film version has just been released, was the second bestselling book in Irleand last week, but it too lagged well behind, with 2,315 sales.
The Second Half, co-written with Roddy Doyle, is also top of the British bestseller lists, selling 21,061 copies there.
Keane’s book was launched with great fanfare at the Aviva stadium in Dublin last Thursday, prompting criticism that it was an unprofessional distraction for Ireland’s assistant manager ahead of two competitive international games. The launch itself was overshadowed by the premature release of copies by Tesco in Burnage, Manchester, which resulted in most of its revelations being tweeted ahead of its official publication.
Dermot Bolger, reviewing the book for The Irish Times, writes: "It is a fine read, as befits interviews remastered by a master storyteller, but Keane remains too private for this to become a sports classic like Andre Agassi's searingly honest memoir, Open. However, compared to worthy but dull memoirs, such as Kevin Kilbane's Killa or Kevin Sheedy's So Good I Did It Twice, it feels like War and Peace."
The full review will be published this Saturday.
