Nesting
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025; the tender, soaring debut you won't be able to forget
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4.5 • 64 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2025
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME
A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK
AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST OF 2025
'Tense, forensically realistic and compulsively readable. Genuinely urgent... A real achievement' SUNDAY TIMES
‘Here is a novelist who has powerful news to tell, and an impressive range of narrative gifts with which to tell it’ IRISH TIMES
‘Should become essential reading for all. A novel that truly matters’ SUNDAY INDEPENDENT
'A moving portrait of life inside the housing system and the courage it takes to try to build a home in society’s cracks' GUARDIAN
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An extraordinary and urgent debut by a prize-winning Irish writer, NESTING introduces an unforgettable new voice in fiction.
On a bright spring afternoon in Dublin, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change everything. Grabbing an armful of clothes from the washing line, Ciara straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe.
This was meant to be an escape. But with dwindling savings, no job, and her family across the sea, Ciara finds herself adrift, facing a broken housing system and the voice of her own demons. As summer passes and winter closes in, she must navigate raising her children in a hotel room, searching for a new home and dealing with her husband Ryan’s relentless campaign to get her to come back. Because leaving is one thing, but staying away is another.
What will it take for Ciara to rebuild her life? Can she ever truly break away from Ryan’s control – and what will be the cost?
Tense, beautiful, and underpinned by an unassailable love, hope and resilience, this is the story of one woman’s bid to start over.
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‘Brand-new, urgent and hugely satisfying’ RODDY DOYLE
'As emotionally charged as it is brutally real. The writing is flawless. I was profoundly moved’ ELAINE FEENEY
‘Will make your blood boil and your heart soar. This is an important novel' CLAIRE KILROY
‘Gorgeous, maddening, thrilling and compassionate’ SHEILA ARMSTRONG
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this tense, beautifully written debut novel, Ciara, a mother of two and pregnant with her third child, isn’t safe in her Dublin home. On the surface, her husband is attractive and charming, but he blames, manipulates and controls Ciara until one day, on the spur of the moment, she leaves. Isolated from her family, who are based in England, and with little money, she must navigate raising her children in temporary accommodation, while also overcoming her own self-doubt, seeded by years of bullying and psychological abuse. Can she really reinvent her life—and at what cost? The depiction of the sacrifices required to try to start anew, as well as the risks such a decision brings and the love that underpins Ciara’s actions, is nuanced and deeply affecting. This powerfully emotional novel will leave you wondering how far you’d go for freedom.
Customer Reviews
Brilliant
Absolutely riveting, I couldn’t put it down.