The Playground

Eve is starting again.

Newly single, unemployed and with a baby daughter, she joins the local mums trying to make their nearby playground the heart of the community. But not all games are innocent - and not all friends are true. When the rules change, Eve must forge her own independence - and realise that the playground is no place to hide from adulthood.

“A first-rate portrait ... Very funny (squirm-inducing early Mike Leigh - Abigail's Party , say - comes to mind) ... The anarchy of the everyday is what the novel conveys so well, so unhurriedly, so unostentatiously, with much sly wit ... Excellent-- Irish Times”

Dazzling ... It's a funny, sometimes heartbreaking insight into how a young mother struggles to cope ... Absolutely captivating' - Irish Independent

Julia Kelly is surely the freshest voice in Irish fiction since the wonderful early novels of Edna O'Brien. This is a future to watch - John Banville

Searingly honest, uncomfortably so ... Anatomises the aftermath of a breakup and the ensuing struggles with scalpel-like prose ... emotional resonance and achingly human observations - Sunday Independent

A first-rate portrait ... Very funny (squirm-inducing early Mike Leigh - Abigail's Party, say - comes to mind) ... The anarchy of the everyday is what the novel conveys so well, so unhurriedly, so unostentatiously, with much sly wit ... Excellent - Irish Times

Julia Kelly was born in 1969, studied English, Sociology and Journalism in Dublin, and escaped to London for the mad, bad years of life. Her first novel, With My Lazy Eye, won her the Sunday Independent Best Irish Newcomer of the Year Award. She now lives in Bray, County Wicklow with her partner and their little girl.

Eve is starting again. Newly single, unemployed and with a baby daughter, she joins the local mums trying to make their nearby playground the heart of the community. But not all games are innocent - and not all friends are true. When the rules change, Eve must forge her own independence - and realise that the playground is no place to hide from adulthood.

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