Mouthing

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

The bestselling Irish debut novel – a multigenerational portrait of small-town life bursting with caustic wit – for fans of Jon McGregor, Elizabeth Strout and Paul Murray

Welcome to Ballyrowan: a village built out of stories. Stories about the girl who got herself into trouble and disappeared to America, the brother and sister who both went mad, the priest who tried to help them and the doctor who had them committed, about your man going off with a young one half his age, the child he left behind, the neighbour who took her in, and what was said and done about it afterwards . . .

‘Engrossing, funny, delightfully wicked’ Irish Times

‘A novel for anyone who ever wondered what the neighbours are really up to behind closed doors’ Jan Carson, author of The Raptures

‘Full of disgrace, inherited trauma and family secrets. It will make you laugh - because if you didn't, you'd surely cry’ Aingeala Flannery

©2024 Orla Mackey (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

Engrossing, acerbic and brilliant. Everyone here has a tale to tell... There is a pub and there is a priest. There are secrets and lies. It is by turns funny, horrifying, and all too real... Mackey’s structure requires the reader to constantly reassess their opinions of the characters. It is a fascinating magic trick, shimmering with fractal richness... Again and again we meet a character, form an opinion, and almost immediately have that wittily torpedoed
The Irish Times
A compelling and highly entertaining read; it is a brilliant debut . . . The more people you get to know, the more compelling the novel becomes . . . The interlinked stories are like an addictive soap opera, and you never want them to end . . . Mackey observes the small community with affection and writes about them with real insight and a finely honed wit
Irish Examiner
A bittersweet love letter to small-town Irish life over several generations, a polyvocal mosaic in the vein of Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge
Irish Times, ‘Everything Books in 2024’
A hotbed of gossip and intrigue, the novel is narrated in a dark, humorous and confessional style by several generations of villagers, from the mid-20th century to the early 21st . . . Anyone with experience of a small town will be drawn to this
Journal.ie
A startling debut . . . The world Mackey pitches her readers into is hilarious, heartbreaking and oh-so-familiar to anyone who grew up in a small community. No character is straightforward here and each voices their story in a unique and compelling way
Irish Times, 'The best books of 2024 so far'
Intimate and panoramic, a raucous gathering of voices: full of humour, pierced with longing, caught between connection and claustrophobia. Compassionate but clear-eyed, angry and elegiac, Mouthing is a portrait of our confused and often destructive yearning for grace
Colin Walsh, author of 'Kala'
Orla Mackey writes with tenderness, honesty and caustic wit. Mouthing is full of characters who'll simultaneously make your blood boil and break your heart into little bits. A novel for everyone who's ever wondered what the neighbours are really up to behind closed doors . . .
Jan Carson, author of 'The Raptures'
Sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued, a biting, unsentimental love letter to rural Irish life
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All human life is here . . . Mackey’s book is told in the richly descriptive language of the local people, and calls to mind writers like Donal Ryan and Anne Griffin
Irish Times, 'Arts & Ideas'
A hugely accomplished, sophisticated debut, wildly original and distinct: a startling chorus of vivid, hungry characters battling for love, status and meaning in a small Irish town where not much of anything is to be found. Mackey’s characters possess a devastating, squint-eyed wit but also a capacity for moments of great, unexpected tenderness. No one is ever as alone as they might think. I cannot wait to read what Orla Mackey does next!
Lauren Mackenzie, author of 'The Couples'

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