Showing results by author "Eimear McBride" in All Categories

One night an 18-year-old Irish girl, recently arrived in London to attend drama school, meets an older man - a well-regarded actor in his own right. While she is naive and thrilled by life in the big city, he is haunted by more than a few demons, and the clamorous relationship that ensues risks undoing them both. A captivating story of passion and innocence, joy and discovery, set against the vibrant atmosphere of 1990s London over the course of a single year, The Lesser Bohemians glows with the eddies and anxieties of growing up.

1995, London. Outside the filthy window, the city rushes by. But up in the flat, there is only Eily and Stephen, 19 and 39. The total obsession of new love. Eighteen months later, a rainy Camden night. Eily and Stephen retrace the course of their two-year romance now their world is merging with the common place and ties from the past are intruding. Stephen has reconnected with his long-lost teenage daughter Grace. Eily thinks about the future and their flat feels different.

A nameless woman enters a nondescript hotel room she's been in once before, many years ago. Though the room hasn't changed, she has, as have the dimensions of her life. As she goes on to occupy a series of hotel rooms around the world - each of which reflects back some aspect of herself - we begin to piece together the details of what transpires in these rooms, the rules of engagements she's put in place for herself and the men she sometimes meets, and the outlines of the absence she is trying to forget.

In her blistering non-fiction debut, Eimear McBride unpicks the contradictory forces of disgust and objectification that control and shame women. From playground taunts of 'only sluts do it' but 'virgins are frigid', to ladette culture and the arrival of 'ironic' porn, via Debbie Harry, the Kardashians and the Catholic church - she looks at how this prejudicial messaging has played out in the past, and still surround us today.

Exploring otherness, identity, faith, religion, gender and sexual trauma, Hag brings together a gripping collection of tales that are unsettlingly timely and wickedly sinister. E

The three-day Folio Prize Fiction Festival 2014 brought together some great writers and audiences and gave them a real opportunitey to talk in depth about their work and similar subjects. The festival included interviews and discussions with top writers, novelists, poets, critics and publishers, including Eimear McBride, Paul Baggaley, Sergio De La Pava, Rachel Kushner, Sarah Hall, Pankaj Mishra, Stephanie Merritt, Jane Gardam and Mark Haddon.