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[An] impressively confident debut … Maurice Hannigan emerges as an engaging, compassionate creation
Guardian
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Anne Griffin’s debut novel is a must read. Beautifully observed, masterful story telling – stunning!
Graham Norton
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Griffin is a magical storyteller whose prose is effortless and clear. She conjures an intimate, poignant and ultimately enthralling portrait of a man who has battled loneliness and other demons throughout his life. Maurice is superbly well-realised: a character who tries to make amends and, in so doing, cracked my heart.
Daily Mail
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A book to savour, and pass on. An absolute joy
Sunday Mirror
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A hugely enjoyable, engrossing novel, a genuine page-turner.
Donal Ryan
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Maurice Hannigan is a wonderful invention, whose bitter-sweet meditations will stay long in the reader’s mind. Anne Griffin has fashioned a rare jewel.
John Banville
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This is how you tell a story
Cecelia Ahern
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[Anne Griffin] builds a remarkably rich sense of place, while also tracing the wider changes affecting Ireland. …Maurice is a lovingly rendered example of the current vogue for characters who have fallen through the cracks
Sunday Times
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Beautifully written, unhurried and thoughtful, and a character you love from the off.
Kit de Waal
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As candid a portrait of human frailty as you’re likely to find. Griffin is uncannily accurate in her depiction of that peculiarly Irish emotional paralysis we’re all familiar with.
Sunday Independent
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Pitch-perfect prose … Moving and beautifully written, this is a wonderfully assured debut.
Mail on Sunday
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A proper tear-jerker, but one that will ultimately leave you feeling hopeful
Grazia
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A warm and wise treasure of a book with a character whose voice draws you in from the start
The I
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A rich and moving story, a poetic voice and unforgettable character in Maurice
Elle
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It’s all beautifully done; a tale told in the plain but poetic prose of a man who recognises the tragic truths gleaned from a life of love and loss. A gem of a book
Sunday Express
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This could be one of the big book hits of 2019
Red Magazine
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An atmospheric debut … The most impressive aspects of this first novel are its rich, flowing prose, its convincing voice and its imaginative and clever structure … Griffin is a welcome arrival to the literary scene
Irish Times
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Griffin’s strength is in voice and in the rhythm of her prose … She is excellent at interrogating the complexity of Maurice’s barriers
Irish Independent
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A rich, fluid debut novel
The I Newspaper
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A heartfelt and impressive debut novel
Sunday Business Post
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Poetic and touching without being sentimental, When All Is Said by Anne Griffin is something special.
Good Housekeeping
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An emotional yet uplifting novel – we defy you not to fall in love with Maurice Hannigan and his heart-warming story.
Woman's Weekly
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Will stay with you long after you close the cover
Irish Mail on Sunday
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Beautifully written, this is a feast of Irish storytelling
Choice
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A powerful page-turner … wonderfully poetic, atmospheric and moving.
Best
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When All Is Said captures the texture of a night catching up with an old friend – the pleasures and comforts, the stories and surprises – one that you never want to end, and all the more bittersweet because you know, of course, that it must.
Kathleen Rooney
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Maurice Hannigan is one of those rare and unforgettable characters whose lives we enter, inhabit for a time all too brief, and emerge from deeply changed. Anne Griffin is a writer with a bright, bright future.
Janet Peery
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A warm and nourishing story from a writer of much promise.
RTE Guide
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Griffin’s debut is a beautiful and poignant page-turner.
Image Magazine
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A fine literary debut from a writer I’m sure we’ll hear more from
Mature Times
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Superb … incredibly moving without ever straying into sentiment
People
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[Maurice’s] story will make you laugh and cry – When All Is Said is a wonderful debut novel from Anne Griffin. She says she “wanted to write a damn good story”. She has succeeded beyond her dreams.
My Weekly
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When All Is Said tells the tale of an imperfect man who you will not be able to forget.
Irish Country Magazine
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A beautifully written, perfectly paced, heartfelt novel
Saga
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Tissues at the ready for what is a confident yet carefully written debut . . . I adored it. Utterly recommended.
Woman's Way
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Achingly poignant and wryly funny, Irish author Anne Griffin’s luminous debut is a celebration of stolen joy and lost opportunities
Waterstones Weekly
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A heart-warming, heart-breaking and poignant debut of rare power.
NetGalley Books of 2019
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Griffin’s stunning debut, brimming with irresistible Irish-isms, is an elegy to love, loss and the complexity of life.
People Magazine
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An accomplished debut. A sensitive layered description of grief and regret . . . excellent
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Beautifully realized
LitHub
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A portrait of a life in which revenge, love, loss, and misunderstanding all play their part . . . This is a wonderful piece of story-telling that is intimate, compassionate and extraordinarily assured.
Daily Mail
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Anne Griffin’s first novel has taken Ireland by storm . . . Immediate, often funny, sometimes dark and, on occasion, devastatingly sad.
The Times
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Nearly 40 years of publishing has made me a cynical reviewer of books, but, oh my god, it’s impossible to be churlish about discovering such a fabulous and unforgettable character. A one-hit wonder this is not
NB Magazine
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A gentle tale of an irascible Irish farmer, who spends the last day of his life toasting the five people who have meant the most to him- sure to move even the stoniest of hearts
Independent
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There is something special here . . . The next big name to emerge from the Irish writing scene.
John Boyne
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An ingenious narrative
Stylist
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In the twilight of his long and eventful life, Irishman Maurice Hannigan still possesses the deep and mellow voice that his grandmother once told him ‘could melt icebergs-a voice that debut author Anne Griffin renders with wit, verve, and endearing irascibility. When All Is Said captures the texture of a night catching up with an old friend–the pleasures and comforts, the stories and surprises-one that you never want to end, and all the more bittersweet because you know, of course, that it must.
Kathleen Rooney, author of LILIAN BOXFISH TAKES A WALK
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Maurice Hannigan is one of those rare and unforgettable characters whose lives we enter, inhabit for a time all too brief, and emerge from deeply changed. Anne Griffin is a writer with a bright, bright future.
Janet Peery, National Book Award finalist
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Taken Ireland by storm . . . Immediate, often funny, sometimes dark and, on occasion, devastatingly sad.
The Times
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It was a masterstroke to get one of the greatest living Irish character actors (and there’s stiff competition) to voice Maurice Hannigan … Better than on the page.
Sunday Times
