Anakana Schofield

Martin John must put a stop to it. They have an agreement, he and Mam. Get out to Aunty Noanie on Wednesday. Stop talking rubbish. Don't go near the buses and don't go down on the Tube. Keep yourself on the outside. Get a job at night. Get a job at night or else I'll come for ya. But Martin John can't stop. Meddlers are interrupting him and Martin John doesn't like Meddlers. If he's interrupted he can't complete his circuits; if he can't complete his circuits, bad things may happen. That's a fact. Written with all the electrifying humour of her award-winning debut Malarky, exhibiting a startling grasp of the loops and obsessions of a molester's mind, Martin John is a testament to Anakana Schofield's skill and audacity-and stands as a brilliant, Beckettian exploration of a man's long slide into deviancy.

Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020 'Insightful. Inventive. Hilarious. Genius' EIMEAR MCBRIDE'Bina is fiction of the rarest and darkest kind, a work whose pleasures must be taken measure for measure with its pains' RACHEL CUSK'A captivating look at female friendship' MAIL ON SUNDAY My name is Bina and I'm a very busy woman. That's Bye-na, not Beena. I don't know who Beena is but I expect she's having a happy life. I don't know who you are, or the state of your life. But if you've come all this way here to listen to me, your life will undoubtedly get worse. I'm here to warn you . . .So begins this 'novel in warnings' - an unforgettable tour de force in the voice of an ordinary-extraordinary woman who has simply had enough. Through the character of Bina, who is writing out her story on the backs of discarded envelopes, Anakana Schofield filters a complex moral universe filled with humour and sadness, love and rage, and the consolations, obligations and mysteries of lifelong friendship. A work of great power, skill, and transformative empathy from a unique and astonishing writer.

A provocative, feminist novel about a woman who persists in spite of the violence, injustice, and oppression that fills her world. Bina is a woman who's had enough and isn't afraid to say so. "I'm here to warn you, not reassure you," she announces at the book's outset. In a series of taut, urgent missives she attempts to set the record of her life straight, and in doing so, to be useful to others. Yet being useful is what landed her in jail. Empathy is her Achilles' heel. Her troubles seem to stem from an injured stranger named Eddie, and they multiply when her charity extends from delivering meals to the elderly to working with the dying. No good deed of hers goes unpunished and the costs of her capacity for care are legion, as one by one she is denied her livelihood, her health, and her freedom, but her voice continues resolutely, an act of friendship in itself. Bina is an unsettling, thought-provoking novel of formal inventiveness and moral and emotional complexity by a bold and talented writer.

A wickedly funny and wonderfully deranged literary debut introducing a brilliant new voice in contemporary Irish fiction Our Woman refuses to be sunk by what life is about to serve her. She’s just caught her son Jimmy in the barn with another man. She’s been accosted by Red the Twit, who claims to have done the unmentionable with her husband. And now her son’s gone and joined the only group that will have him: an army division on its way to Afghanistan. Setting aside her prim and proper ways, Our Woman promptly embarks on an odyssey of her own – one that forces her to look grief in the eye and come face-to-face with the mad agony of longing.

WINNER OF THE AMAZON.CA FIRST NOVEL AWARD, 2013WINNER OF THE DEBUT-LITZER PRIZE, 2013 SHORTLISTED FOR THE ETHEL WILSON FICTION PRIZEA NEW STATESMAN READ-ALL-ABOUT-IT SELECTION FOR 2012A BARNES & NOBLE DISCOVER GREAT NEW WRITERS PICK, 2012A SALON.COM WHAT-TO-READ AWARD-WINNER, 2012A TOP FIVE BOOK PICK, CHATELAINEAN iTUNES CANADA BEST OF 2012 FICTION PICKAN AMAZON.CA BEST BOOK OF 2012 EDITOR'S PICKA LARGEHEARTED BOY FAVORITE NOVEL OF 2012A NEXT BEST BOOK BLOG TOP 3, 2012 "A caustic, funny and moving fantasia of an Irish mammy going round the bend."--Emma Donoghue, author of ROOM Our Woman will not be sunk by what life's about to serve her. She's caught her son doing unmentionable things out by the barn. She's been accosted by Red the Twit, who claims to have done things with Our Woman's husband that could frankly have gone without mentioning. And now her son's gone and joined the army, and Our Woman has found a young fella to do unmentionable things with herself, just so she might understand it all... Malarky is the story of an Irish mother forced to look grief in the eye, and of a wife come face-to-face with the mad agony of longing. Comic, moving, eccentric, and spare, Anakana Schofield's debut novel introduces a brilliant new voice in contemporary fiction. Further Praise for Malarky AN EDMONTON JOURNAL FAVOURITE FOR 2012A THREE-TIME BEST-OF-THE-YEAR GEORGIA STRAIGHT SELECTION "Anakana Schofield is part of a new wave of wonderful Irish fiction--international in scope and electrically alive."--Colum McCann "Malarky is a terrific read, a brilliant collision of heartbreak and hilarity written in a voice that somehow seems both feral and perfectly controlled. Anakana Schofield's Our Woman takes a cool nod at Joyce, then goes her own way in one of the most moving and lyrical debut novels I've read."--Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins "We become comfortable saying that there's nothing new, and then something like Malarky comes along, which is new and old and different and familiar, but ultimately itself, comfortable in its own skin, wise and smart and crazy-sexy or maybe sexy-crazy--well, you just have to read it to understand. It's a novel that sets its own course, sure and steady, even when it seems like it might be about to go over the edge of the world."--Laura Lippman "This is the story of Anakana Schofield's teapot-wielding 'Our Woman': fretful mother, disgruntled farmwife, and--surprisingly late in life--sexual outlaw/anthropologist. Everything about this primly raunchy, uproarious novel is unexpected--each draught poured from the teapot marks another moment of pure literary audacity."--Lynn Coady, author of The Antagonist "Anyone bold enough to name her book after a word so loaded deserves our attention. In Malarky Schofield pulls her long line tight--and lets go when we least expect it."--Michael Turner, author of Hard Core Logo "Malarky spins and glitters like a coin flipped in the air--now searingly tragic, now blackly funny. The language is joyful and exuberant, the characters thoughtful and deeply felt. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant."--Annabel Lyon "Good writing and dark wit always excite me and they come together thrillingly in this book. It has a quiet grip on the strangeness of the interior and exterior worlds of love and politics. I delighted in the writing and the scope."--Jenny Diski Anakana Schofield is an Irish Canadian writer of fiction, drama, essays, and criticism. She contributes to the London Review of Books and The Globe and Mail (among others). She has lived in London, Dublin, and Vancouver; Malarky is her first novel.