You Have to Make Your Own Fun Around Here
Winner of the Beryl Bainbridge First Time Author Award
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
'This atmospheric debut looks like a rural Irish coming-of-age novel, but it’s cleverer, darker, more unreliable.' Daily Mail
AN IRISH INDEPENDENT BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN IRISH INDEPENDENT CRITICS CHOICE FOR CHRISTMAS
WINNER OF THE BERYL BAINBRIDGE BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD, 2020/2021
AN IRISH TIMES, IRISH INDEPENDENT and SUNDAY INDEPENDENT 'TITLE TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2020'
Katie, Maeve and Evelyn have been friends forever. Outspoken, unpredictable and intoxicating, Evelyn is the undisputed leader of the trio. But Katie’s dream of escaping their tiny rural town for a new life in Dublin confronts her with a choice: to hold onto a friendship that has made her who she is, or risk leaving her best friend behind.
Told from Katie’s witty, quirky perspective and filled with unforgettable characters, this moving, immersive and very funny study of sisterhood takes a keen-eyed look at the delights and complexities of female friendship, the corrosive power of jealousy and guilt, and the people and places that shape us. Compellingly readable and effortlessly sharp, fizzing with the voices of rural Ireland, this is an unmissable novel from a dazzling new talent.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Macken debuts with an overfull take on female friendship and the frustrations of early adulthood. Katie Devane grows up in rural Glenbruff, Ireland, with Evelyn, her self-centered best friend, and Katie's needy adopted cousin, Maeve. At 16, in the 1990s, Katie and Evelyn fantasize of fleeing the depressed town to become great artists, but things change when new classmate Pamela Cooney arrives from Dublin as part of the country's rural resettlement program. Pamela shows off fresh hip-hop dance moves and looks to Katie "like a doll fresh out of a box." After Pamela's unexplained disappearance, the girls continue to rue the attention paid to her. Macken's narrative skips quickly through time, with Katie leaving for college in Dublin, then graduating and working in advertising. After she burns out at a hyper-stressful agency, Katie returns home in her 20s to a mercurial Evelyn and a newly assured Maeve. A surprise announcement from Evelyn about her film project makes Katie immensely jealous and pushes her into deeper self-doubt about her own aspirations to work in film. Macken's downplaying of major events, such as Pamela's disappearance and Katie's college years, resonates with the solipsism of youth, but can make story lines seem undeveloped. Still, Macken gets a lot of mileage from Katie's beguiling voice and sardonic humor. In the end, this is too scattershot to make an impact.
