Children of Las Vegas

True stories about growing up in the world’s playground

‘This is a special thing, faultless’ Mark Knopfler

Over forty million people a year travel to Las Vegas, more than to Mecca. It is a global celebrity, an improbable oasis, a place offering bank-breaking fortunes and instant gratification, 24/7, with no moral debits.

Award-winning writer Timothy O’Grady lived in Vegas for two years. He finally began to understand it when he talked to people who had grown up there, the children of the card dealers and cocktail shakers, the jugglers and the dancers – young people who had borne witness to this strange city all their lives. One had her student loans and credit card limits stolen by her father. Another fled a sequence of exploiters until she found herself living in the storm drains under the casinos. There were the boy whose father entered him into a drinking contest when he was eight, the casino owner’s son, the erudite contortionist turned stripper. Each told their own tale.

In Children of Las Vegas, O’Grady renews his partnership with photographer Steve Pyke. Through short essays, Pyke’s portraits and ten witness testimonies, he pierces the city’s glittering façade to reveal the darker reality that lies beneath.

‘These are brave, honest, articulate stories, the children wise beyond their years. A modern fairy tale’ Martina Evans, Irish Times

Paperback: 176pp

Published: Wilton Square (November 2025)

ISBN: 9781789651867