Ordinary Human Failings (Hardback)
  • Ordinary Human Failings (Hardback)
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Ordinary Human Failings (Hardback)

(author)
£16.99
Hardback 224 Pages
Published: 13/07/2023
  • 10+ in stock

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Waterstones Says

Set in 1990s London, this searing novel from the acclaimed author of Acts of Desperation follows a reporter who begins to investigate an Irish family implicated in an atrocious crime.

Shortlisted for the Nero Fiction Award 2023

Shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2023/24

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024

When we look beyond the headlines, everyone has a story to tell.

It's 1990 in London and Tom Hargreaves has it all: a burgeoning career as a reporter, fierce ambition and a brisk disregard for the 'peasants' - ordinary people, his readers, easy tabloid fodder. His star looks set to rise when he stumbles across a scoop: a dead child on a London estate, grieving parents loved across the neighbourhood, and the finger of suspicion pointing at one reclusive family of Irish immigrants and 'bad apples': the Greens.

At their heart sits Carmel: beautiful, other-worldly, broken, and once destined for a future beyond her circumstances until life - and love - got in her way. Crushed by failure and surrounded by disappointment, there's nowhere for her to go and no chance of escape. Now, with the police closing in on a suspect and the tabloids hunting their monster, she must confront the secrets and silences that have trapped her family for so many generations.

Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781787332508
Number of pages: 224
Weight: 336 g
Dimensions: 224 x 142 x 22 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

Megan Nolan's debut novel saw her grouped with other Irish millennial women such as Sally Rooney and Naoise Dolan. But with her ambitious and insightful second novel, Ordinary Human Failings, Nolan makes it clear she is not a manifestation of a type, but rather a writer to be read on her own terms - Financial Times

One masterful novel... Nolan has excelled herself: Ordinary Human Failings is a raw, pulsing thing... A writer who's still at the start of what promises to be a splendid career. Ordinary Human Failings is a bold and beautiful second novel... daring in all the right ways, but compassionate when it needs to be - Daily Telegraph

There is something wonderfully ordinary about this book... Nolan has set out to make a plain three-legged stool rather than an ornate grandfather clock. The corridors of contemporary literature are stuffed with grandfather clocks with faulty mechanisms. How much more valuable is this modest, well-made thing - Sunday Times

Nolan’s novel is dark in subject, yet retains a tender faith in a person’s, or a family’s, capacity for change - New Statesman, Books of the Year*

As much of a compulsive read as the first novel - The Times

A subtle, accomplished and lyrical study of familial and intergenerational despair, a quiet book about quiet lives... An excellent novel: politically astute, furious and compassionate... A genuine achievement - Guardian

The millennial author everyone should be watching right now - Daily Telegraph

Nolan has crafted a novel full of brutal, illuminating truths - Sunday Times, Books of the Year*

Megan Nolan is one of the brightest young things around - The Times, Summer Reads of 2023*

Addiction, teenage pregnancy and heartbreak fuel this pacey, poignant novel - The Times, Books of the Year*

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“Not an ordinary novel..”

‘Acts of Desperation’ was one of my favourite debut novels. With this second novel Nolan shows us just what a diverse and accomplished writer she is.

‘Ordinary Human Failings’ has a wonderful storyline but what is... More

Hardback edition
1 similar book recommended
Helpful? Upvote 26

“An understated, well-observed, beautifully-written novel from the author of ACTS OF DESPERATION”

When a small child (Mia) is found dead on a housing estate in England, everyone assumes it must be 10-year-old Lucy, the youngest member of the no-good Irish family (the Greens) who moved in when she was born. Local... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 18
Georgina (ReadsEatsExplores)

“Utterly compelling. A must read!”

Set in the 1990s, ambitious reporter Tom Hargreaves stumbles across a scoop: a dead child on a London estate. At the centre of the suspicions are one reclusive family of Irish immigrants; others on the estate call... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 14

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