Audible to launch new narrative non-fiction project next year

Audible will launch a new narrative non-fiction project in February 2020 from social care worker Shane Dunphy shining a light on Irish gangs. 

Harriet Poland, commissioning editor at Audible, secured world English language audio rights for Stories From The Margins: Bleak Alley an Audible Original, from Ivan Mulcahy of MMB Creative.

Dunphy, a social care worker, author, documentary maker and RTE and NPR contributor, worked in child protection for more than a decade and has spent his career telling the stories of people who live on the peripheries. Dunphy has spent the last several years researching and investigating the gangs of middle Ireland’s housing estates. Whilst fact-finding, Dunphy formed a close bond with a neglected young man, Mikey, documenting his decline – and desperate to help – as he saw Mikey get pulled deeper and deeper into the gang’s illicit pursuits.
 
"With vivid detail, unrivalled access and thoughtful presentation, Dunphy documents his journey into gangland and his struggle to help Mikey survive in a powerful new memoir, Stories From The Margins: Bleak Alley," reads the synopsis. "The first in Dunphy’s Audible Original audiobook series, shines a light on gang mentality, abuse, hopelessness, and the challenges facing trauma survivors who are struggling to speak truth to power."
 
Dunphy said: “The people I met while researching this book had stories and voices that were so strong, so vivid, that I felt compelled to go deeper and find out what was driving them.  I expected to find violence and unhappiness as I entered this world, and it was there, but  I learned that even in the darkest moments, these young people found hope and camaraderie in the bonds they had with one another.  That is what has stayed with me.  And I suspect it is what listeners and readers will be most surprised by."