Whale Fall

An astonishingly assured debut that straddles many polarities: love and loss, the familiar and the strange, trust and betrayal, land and sea, life and death. O’Connor has created a beguiling and beguiled narrator in Manod: I loved seeing the world through her eyes, and I didn’t want it to end -- Maggie O'Farrell, author of <i>Hamnet</i> and <i>The Marriage Portrait</i> An exquisite, evocative coming-of-age story that takes place in a world on the cusp of great change * The Observer, Debuts of the Year 2024 * A powerful novel, written with a calm, luminous precision, each feeling rendered with chiselled care, the drama of island life unfolding with piercing emotional accuracy -- Colm Tóibín, author of <i>The Magician</i> and <i>Brooklyn</i> The quiet cadences of Whale Fall contain a deep melody of loss held and let go. It is a gentle, tough story about profound change -- Anne Enright, Booker Prize winning author of <i>The Wren, the Wren</i> I absolutely adored Whale Fall, I fell completely under its spell. Every sentence rang with clarity and authenticity. It's a triumph -- Elizabeth Macneal, bestselling author of <i>The Doll Factory</i> Mesmerising. A novel with such presence, both wild and still: utterly exquisite -- Imogen Hermes Gowar, author of <i>The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock</i> Whale Fall moves like a tide, ebbing and flowing . . . transporting and utterly beautiful -- Seán Hewitt, author of <i>All Down Darkness Wide</i> I devoured the exquisite Whale Fall. Immersive, elegiac and silvered with salt - beautiful -- Lizzie Pook, author of <i>Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge</i> An evocative, slow-burn tale * The Bookseller, Editor's Choice *