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First-time novelist Tish Delaney isn t sure if she ever really wanted to write a book. She seems genuinely bemused that national magazines, newspapers and veteran authors such as Roddy Doyle are praising her debut, Before My Actual Heart Breaks, which has just been published. I used to write short stories - I ve written hundreds of them, she says, chatting via Zoom from the home she shares on the Channel Island of Alderney with her partner, artist Neil Paterson. One day, Neil said to me, All these short stories… you do know that what you re actually doing is writing a book? ....
First-time novelist Tish Delaney isn t sure if she ever really wanted to write a book. She seems genuinely bemused that national magazines, newspapers and veteran authors such as Roddy Doyle are praising her debut, Before My Actual Heart Breaks, which has just been published. ....
BEFORE MY ACTUAL HEART BREAKS by Tish Delaney (Hutchinson £14.99, 384 pp) Mary Rattigan dreams of escaping her toxic family background in Northern Ireland to seek her fortune in the U.S. But accidentally becoming pregnant at 16 puts paid to all that. Instead, a hasty wedding is arranged to handsome local farmer, John Johns. Despite not being the father of Mary s daughter, John dotes on the child. His relationship with Mary, though, is fraught with problems and the pair live in a state of near estrangement. Mary is an eloquent narrator, conveying her and her husband s pain with exquisite and moving precision. The loneliness, grief and long-lasting repercussions of trauma are achingly real. ....
First of all: Irish writers on their debut novels coming out in 2021 From Louise Nealon’s coming-of-age tale to Una Mannion’s American nightmare Sat, Jan 30, 2021, 06:00 Niamh Donnelly Louise Nealon lives on a dairy farm in Kildare with her family. Snowflake (Manilla, May) is a coming-of-age tale about a young woman who struggles to cope when she moves away from her family farm and steps into life in Trinity College Dublin. What was the hardest thing about writing Snowflake? The thought of sitting down to write is not very appealing to me, which is unfortunate, as well as embarrassing, for a person who calls herself a writer. When I was working on Snowflake, I had to constantly confront my own insecurities. Every day without fail, my inner critic would remind me that I couldn’t string a sentence together. The moment I finished ....
Books to look out for in 2021 Irish fiction New work that has been a long time coming generates a particular shiver of anticipation. Small Things Like These (Faber, October) will be Claire Keegan’s first new work since her novella Foster, still a bestseller 10 years on. Her publisher says: “An exquisite wintery parable, Claire Keegan’s long-awaited return tells the story of a simple act of courage and tenderness, in the face of conformity, fear and judgment.” Small Things Like These (Faber, October) will be Claire Keegan’s first new work since her novella Foster, still a bestseller 10 years on. Photograph: Alan Betson ....