Exile

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What to expect

'A brilliant novel about friendship, consent and displacement from a vibrant new voice' Irish Examiner

'The most unexpected close to a book that will take its place among the best of contemporary Irish fiction' Nicholas Allen, Irish Times

'Taut, accomplished and affecting' Lucy Caldwell

Leaving home was hard. Returning is impossible.

Fiadh's life is turned completely upside down on a night out in Belfast. Pretty soon everyone has heard about what happened; it is impossible to keep the rumours from spreading, the gossip from spiralling out of control. And just as she was beginning to finally figure everything out: she was feeling positive about her move to Liverpool, she was starting to get on top of her uni work and had made some new friends. Now her life is in freefall and Fiadh is helpless to do anything about it.

She starts missing assignment deadlines, stops turning up to class and doesn't respond to any of her friends' messages. Her nights revolve around random hook ups, fuelled by drink and drugs. Without the tightknit group of friends she left behind at home or the support of the new friends she has made in Liverpool, Fiadh's life quickly descends into chaos, a chaos that nearly costs her everything.

Critics Review

A dark, often bittersweet read where you're so close to the action that it's almost as if you can hear Fiadh breathe . . . important
Belfast Telegraph
A taut, accomplished and affecting addition to the recent body of Belfast novels about the disaffected young, and the complicated tug that a place can have on you
Lucy Caldwell
Skilfully interrogates what it means to have a complex relationship with home, paints a stunningly realistic portrait of the awkward years between childhood and adult existence and is, above all, a cracking read
Jan Carson
A passionate, authoritative novel that maps with scrupulous detail the intensities and treacherously shifting allegiances of its cast
Colin Barrett
Visceral and compelling, Exile is an unflinching novel whose clear-eyed compassion burns brightly even in its darkest moments
Colin Walsh
An explosive debut . . . about the joys, sorrows and complexities of female friendship, and what it is to both leave home and to return changed
Alice Slater
An assured, unsentimental portrayal of youth . . . A compelling debut
EM Reapy
An eruption of a book by a phenomenal writer
Darran Anderson
I barely dared to blink while reading the final few pages . . . One of this year's most highly anticipated releases, Aimée Walsh is a true literary talent.
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