Kirjahaku

Gloria, Eimer and Kate have been friends since they were a trio of six-year-olds cast as the Three Wise Men in the nativity play. Twenty-five years on, they've left Omagh for Dublin and grown up to be Three Unwise Women, all too prone to misuse the gifts they've been given.

Martina Devlin, an award-winning columnist for the Irish Independent and podcaster for Dublin City of Literature #CityofBooks, has delivered a new novel based on the life of Edith Somerville of ‘Somerville and Ross’ fame – authors of The Irish R.M. In this work, set during the turbulent period of Irish Independence 1921–22, Somerville finds herself at a crossroads. Her position as a member of the Ascendancy is perilous as she struggles to keep her family home, Drishane House in West Cork, while others are burned out. After years in a successful writing partnership with Violet Martin, Edith continues to write after her partner’s death, comforted in the belief they continue to connect through automatic writing and séances. Against a backdrop of Civil War politics and lawlessness erupting across the country via IRA flying columns, people across Ireland are forced to consider where their loyalties lie. In Edith, Devlin limns a vivid historical context in this story of proto-feminist Edith Somerville courageously trying to keep home and heart in one piece. The story of Somerville and Ross is unique in the history of Irish women writers. Academic Shawn R. Mooney described these best-selling authors as ‘undeniably New Women: single, educated and economically independent writers whose lives and literary collaboration were unique manifestations of late-nineteenth century feminist strivings toward political and sexual equality’. Devlin depicts Edith in the round, suffering from loss, striving for safety, and keeping hold of hope in this captivating narrative set in the early years of a nascent state — a triumph of ventriloquism rooted in a society on the cusp of change.

Charlotte Brontë dazzled the world with some of literature’s most vital, richly-drawn characters. She spent her brief but extraordinary life in search of love – and eventually found it with Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father’s curate, a reserved yet passionate Irishman. The pair honeymooned in Ireland, though their joy was quenched nine months later when Charlotte died in March 1855. The aura of mystery surrounding the enigmatic author was only to intensify after her death. Charlotte is the story of two marriages and three lives irrevocably intertwined, told by the woman who went on to wed Brontë’s widower. Theirs was a love triangle of devotion and heartache, friendship and deception, passion and obsession. Martina Devlin’s enthralling novel re-envisions Charlotte’s pivotal time in Ireland, weaving back and forth through the novelist’s life and afterlife. It reflects upon the myths built up by those who knew her, those who thought they did, and those who longed to. ‘I was utterly enthralled by this fictional rendering of Charlotte Brontë's life—and its aftermath—as viewed through the eyes of her husband's second wife. This is a powerful and compelling novel that expertly imagines the lives and times of those closest to Brontë, and captivates the reader with its cleverness and eloquence.’ Mary Costello ‘In Charlotte, the raw gold of Charlotte Brontë’s marriage to Arthur Nicholls has been wrought in a wonderful artefact; this is a beautiful novel full of mystery, intrigue and story.’ Carlo Gébler

More than a century after the Easter Rising, Countess Markievicz, one of the leaders of the Irish independence movement, is raised from the dead to advise on present-day politics. This witty, black comedy shows her appalled to discover how little has changed. Once she gets over her shock that she is dead, with her work unfinished, she is even more aghast by the absence of a female Taoiseach in 100 years of independence, and to learn that the Republic of Ireland remains unfinished business.

Charlotte Brontë dazzled the world with some of literature’s most vital, richly-drawn characters. She spent her brief but extraordinary life in search of love – and eventually found it with Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father’s curate, a reserved yet passionate Irishman. The pair honeymooned in Ireland, though their joy was quenched nine months later when Charlotte died in March 1855. The aura of mystery surrounding the enigmatic author was only to intensify after her death. Charlotte is the story of two marriages and three lives irrevocably intertwined, told by the woman who went on to wed Brontë’s widower. Theirs was a love triangle of devotion and heartache, friendship and deception, passion and obsession. Martina Devlin’s enthralling novel re-envisions Charlotte’s pivotal time in Ireland, weaving back and forth through the novelist’s life and afterlife. It reflects upon the myths built up by those who knew her, those who thought they did, and those who longed to. ‘I was utterly enthralled by this fictional rendering of Charlotte Brontë's life—and its aftermath—as viewed through the eyes of her husband's second wife. This is a powerful and compelling novel that expertly imagines the lives and times of those closest to Brontë, and captivates the reader with its cleverness and eloquence.’ Mary Costello ‘In Charlotte, the raw gold of Charlotte Brontë’s marriage to Arthur Nicholls has been wrought in a wonderful artefact; this is a beautiful novel full of mystery, intrigue and story.’ Carlo Gébler