The Quiet Whispers Never Stop
On sale
14th April 2022
Price: £9.99
AN IRISH EXAMINER BOOK OF THE YEAR
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BUTLER LITERARY AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE KATE O’BRIEN AWARD
‘Touching and darkly beautiful’ Irish Sunday Independent
‘Powerful, uncompromising’ Irish Times
‘Utterly absorbing, a novel that keeps you guessing right to the end’ Kit de Waal
1982. Northern Ireland. Nuala Malin is tied to a life she doesn’t want by her daughter Sam and baby son PJ. An affair with a seventeen-year-old boy reminds her of a future she hasn’t given up on, but it can’t last, and when her chance to leave comes, she takes it.
1994. If Sam Malin has a god then it is Kurt Cobain. Music is the only thing that brings her peace. She wants a life away from the North and its troubles, away from her da who can’t talk about the past but seems stuck there, waiting for Sam’s mother to return. A mother Sam barely knew.
Escape seems out of reach until Sam meets a jagged, magnetic older man, drawn to him in a way she can’t yet comprehend.
She falls for him, unable to say no.
Sam is more like her mother than she knows.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BUTLER LITERARY AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE KATE O’BRIEN AWARD
‘Touching and darkly beautiful’ Irish Sunday Independent
‘Powerful, uncompromising’ Irish Times
‘Utterly absorbing, a novel that keeps you guessing right to the end’ Kit de Waal
1982. Northern Ireland. Nuala Malin is tied to a life she doesn’t want by her daughter Sam and baby son PJ. An affair with a seventeen-year-old boy reminds her of a future she hasn’t given up on, but it can’t last, and when her chance to leave comes, she takes it.
1994. If Sam Malin has a god then it is Kurt Cobain. Music is the only thing that brings her peace. She wants a life away from the North and its troubles, away from her da who can’t talk about the past but seems stuck there, waiting for Sam’s mother to return. A mother Sam barely knew.
Escape seems out of reach until Sam meets a jagged, magnetic older man, drawn to him in a way she can’t yet comprehend.
She falls for him, unable to say no.
Sam is more like her mother than she knows.
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Reviews
Searing . . . with a sharp humour and a highly original voice . . . This is not a 'coming of age' story, a love story, or a dissection of marriage; it's all of these things at once, and somehow more nakedly raw than those genres, alone, could possibly capture.
A brave, essential book . . . beautiful
Lyrical and explosive in equal measure, this book pulses with love and loss
A gorgeous coming of age story, exploring the mother-daughter relationship with generosity and nuance
The narrative pings along - as compulsive as it is shocking . . . a brilliant debut - the best Irish one in a strong year