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We Were Young
We Were Young | Niamh Campbell
1 post | 1 read | 5 to read
'I love this woman's writing. Golden sentences' Diana Evans'She has already been compared with writers such as Eimear McBride, Ali Smith and Claire Louise Bennett, and indeed Niamh Campbell does add a distinctive new voice to Irish literature... Witty, fiery, wistful and even shocking, with engrossing heady prose, Campbell's style is unique' Irish IndependentCormac is a photographer. Approaching forty and still single, he suddenly finds himself 'the leftover man'.Through talent and charm, he has escaped small town life and a haunted family. But now his peers are all getting divorced, dying, or buying trampolines in the suburbs. Cormac is dating former students, staying out all night and receiving boilerplate rejection emails for his work, propped up by a constellation of the women and ex-lovers in his life.In the last weeks of the year, Cormac meets Caroline, an ambitious young dancer, and embarks on a miniature odyssey of intimacy. Simultaneously, he must take responsibility for his married brother, whose mid-life crisis forces them both to reckon with a death in the family that hangs over those left behind.Set in Dublin, a city built on burial pits, We Were Young is a dazzlingly clever, deeply enjoyable novel from a Sunday Times Short Story Award-Winning author.'In 30 years from now will some literary critic be asking what is meant by "Campbellesque"? That would not surprise me in the slightest' Irish Times
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andrew61
We Were Young | Niamh Campbell
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Cormac is an attractive single Dubliner, a photographer who drifts through relationships with little commitment while also dealing with family/brother scarred by a death. This novel follows this curious life through the art venues, beds, cafes/pubs and streets of the city hurting 2 women through his failure to treat them with care. The prose flows as if we are watching Cormac walk continuously across a screen. A really interesting piece of work.

SamAnne Would this be a good read during a trip to Dublin? Trying to make an Ireland reading list before my summer trip! 2y
andrew61 @SamAnne it is a picture of modern Dublin artistic Middle class people. There is a lot of Dublin in it but I'm not sure I would find it a relaxing holiday read. I have never been to Dublin, what a great summer you have to look forward to. 2y
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