Snowflake
Winner of Newcomer of the Year
-
- 3,99 €
Publisher Description
**Don't miss Louise Nealon's incredible new novel EVERYTHING THAT IS BEAUTIFUL**
WINNER NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR 2021 AT THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS
'Wonderful and mad' Roddy Doyle
'Sparks with tender charm and humour . . . Fresh, bleakly funny' Sunday Times
'Tender, laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving' Louise O'Neill
'GAS and beautiful and truthful and touching' Marian Keyes, author of Grown Ups
'A novel for anyone who's ever felt lost in the world' John Boyne, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies
'Sharp, clever and affecting' The Independent
'Beautifully written . . . emotionally intelligent and thought-provoking' Daily Mail
'Astonishing' Stacey Halls, author of The Familiars
Debbie's brain isn't perfect. Debbie's thoughts aren't unique. Debbie's dreams are all too real.
Debbie White lives on a dairy farm with her mother, Maeve, and her uncle, Billy. Billy sleeps out in a caravan in the garden with a bottle of whiskey and the stars overhead for company. Maeve spends her days recording her dreams, which she believes to be prophecies.
This world is Debbie's normal, but she is about to step into life as a student at Trinity College Dublin. As she navigates between sophisticated new friends and the family bubble, things begin to unravel. Maeve's eccentricity tilts into something darker, while Billy's drinking gets worse. Debbie struggles to cope with the weirdest, most difficult parts of herself and her small life. But if the Whites are mad, they are also fiercely loving, and each other's true place of safety.
Startling, fresh and utterly unique, Snowflake is a story of messy families, messier friendships and how new chapters often mean starting right back at the beginning.
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME PICK WINNER OF SUNDAY INDEPENDENT NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR 2021, AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS
'Wonderful and mad' Roddy Doyle
'Sparks with tender charm and humour . . . Fresh, bleakly funny' Sunday Times
'Tender, laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving' Louise O'Neill
'GAS and beautiful and truthful and touching' Marian Keyes, author of Grown Ups
'A novel for anyone who's ever felt lost in the world' John Boyne, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies
'Sharp, clever and affecting' The Independent
'Beautifully written . . . emotionally intelligent and thought-provoking' Daily Mail
'Astonishing' Stacey Halls, author of The Familiars
Debbie's brain isn't perfect. Debbie's thoughts aren't unique. Debbie's dreams are all too real.
Debbie White lives on a dairy farm with her mother, Maeve, and her uncle, Billy. Billy sleeps out in a caravan in the garden with a bottle of whiskey and the stars overhead for company. Maeve spends her days recording her dreams, which she believes to be prophecies.
This world is Debbie's normal, but she is about to step into life as a student at Trinity College Dublin. As she navigates between sophisticated new friends and the family bubble, things begin to unravel. Maeve's eccentricity tilts into something darker, while Billy's drinking gets worse. Debbie struggles to cope with the weirdest, most difficult parts of herself and her small life. But if the Whites are mad, they are also fiercely loving, and each other's true place of safety.
Startling, fresh and utterly unique, Snowflake is a story of messy families, messier friendships and how new chapters often mean starting right back at the beginning.
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME PICK
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Louise Nealon’s debut novel Snowflake will almost certainly draw comparisons to a certain Irish author who excels in navigating the growing pains of young adulthood. But while our narrator Debbie’s arrival at Trinity College, Dublin from her family’s dairy farm in the Irish countryside provokes the kind of fish-out-of-water feelings experienced by Normal People’s Connell Waldron, it doesn’t take long for Snowflake to reveal itself as a novel of unique standing. Debbie is a magnetic narrator, introducing us to her largely housebound mother Maeve—a magic yet eccentric woman who is convinced her dreams are visions of the future—and her benign, grounding uncle Billy, who is desperate for Debbie to live a more fulfilled life than her mum. Then there’s Xanthe, Debbie’s only Trinity College friend who, despite looking like she has it together, is suffering beneath the surface. Told in prose so engaging it makes it difficult to step away, Snowflake is a profound portrait of family relationships and the indelible mark they can leave on us, as we attempt to navigate who we really are. But it is also a tender exploration of the complexities of mental health issues, and the beautiful multitudes of each of Nealon’s vividly drawn characters in face of them. Laced with both heartache and hope, this is a surprising, special debut from a bold new voice.
