The Quiet Whispers Never Stop

In 1982, Nuala Malin struggles to stay connected, to her husband, to motherhood, to the smallness of her life in the belly of a place that is built on hate and stagnation. Her daughter Sam and baby son PJ keep her tethered to this life she doesn't want. She finds unexpected refuge with a seventeen-year-old boy, but this relationship is only temporary, a sticking plaster on a festering wound. It cannot last and when her chance to leave Northern Ireland comes, Nuala takes it.

In 1994, Sam Malin plans escape. She longs for a life outside her dysfunctional family, far away from the North and all its troubles, free from her quiet brooding father Patsy, who never talks about her mother, Nuala; a woman Sam barely knew, who abandoned them twelve years ago. She finds solace in music, drugs and her best friend Becca, but most of all in an illicit relationship with a jagged, magnetic older man.

She is drawn to him, and he to her, in a way she can't yet comprehend.

Sam is more like her mother than she knows.

The narrative pings along - as compulsive as it is shocking . . . a brilliant debut - the best Irish one in a strong year -- Sue Leonard Irish Examiner, Books of the Year
A gorgeous coming of age story, exploring the mother-daughter relationship with generosity and nuance -- Louise O'Neill
A brave, essential book . . . beautiful -- Luke Cassidy
Searing . . . with a sharp humour and a highly original voice . . . This is not a 'coming of age' story, a love story, or a dissection of marriage; it's all of these things at once, and somehow more nakedly raw than those genres, alone, could possibly capture. Totally Dublin
Lyrical and explosive in equal measure, this book pulses with love and loss -- Sheila Armstrong

Olivia Fitzsimons is from Northern Ireland now living in County Wicklow with her husband and two children. Her writing has been awarded Literature Bursaries from the Arts Council of Ireland, and Northern Ireland, and a Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris/Literature Ireland Residency. She is a Stinging Fly contributing editor. The Quiet Whispers Never Stop, is her debut novel, and was shortlisted for the 2022 Butler Literary Award and the Kate O'Brien Award.

In 1982, Nuala Malin struggles to stay connected, to her husband, to motherhood, to the smallness of her life in the belly of a place that is built on hate and stagnation. Her daughter Sam and baby son PJ keep her tethered to this life she doesn't want. She finds unexpected refuge with a seventeen-year-old boy, but this relationship is only temporary, a sticking plaster on a festering wound. It cannot last and when her chance to leave Northern Ireland comes, Nuala takes it.In 1994, Sam Malin plans escape. She longs for a life outside her dysfunctional family, far away from the North and all its troubles, free from her quiet brooding father Patsy, who never talks about her mother, Nuala; a woman Sam barely knew, who abandoned them twelve years ago. She finds solace in music, drugs and her best friend Becca, but most of all in an illicit relationship with a jagged, magnetic older man.She is drawn to him, and he to her, in a way she can't yet comprehend.Sam is more like her mother than she knows.

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