Lucy Caldwell

'A mature and rare and rich writer.' TESSA HADLEY 'Exhilarating, devastating, comforting, essential.' CLAIRE KILROY 'These are stories which sing off the page.' JAN CARSON 'A consummate master of the craft.' RTE The highly-anticipated new collection from the BBC National Short Story Award-winning author of Multitudes, Intimacies and Openings. 'There must be moments when we let go - let go of all that we do, all that we are.' In her new collection, Lucy Caldwell explores yearning for distant pasts and unknown futures. A woman recalls the time her grandfather claimed to have met Jesus. A professional musician travels across the world and through her memories with a violin older than the USA. A young Belfast theatre troupe brings their experimental production of Hamlet to New York. Transporting and profound, these are stories of love, grief, and the ways that lives can be haunted. 'One of our best short story writers.' THE TIMES '[Caldwell] holds the reader right up against the tender humanity of her characters.' EIMEAR McBRIDE 'A next-level author of short stories.' THE HERALD

"Adroit, precise storytelling, atmospheric and satisfying; These Days is a novel of real substance." --Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2023 One of Lit Hub's and Zibby Owens's Most Anticipated Books of 2025 - One of The Washington Post's 10 Noteworthy Books of April 2025 - One of NPR's Best Books of 2025 An "exquisitely lyrical" (Louise Kennedy) WWII novel from a singular Irish writer following two sisters over the course of four nights as they reckon with their futures in crumbling Belfast. April 1941: Belfast has escaped the worst of the Second World War--so far. Over the next two months, it will be so destroyed from above that people will say, in horror, "My God, Belfast is finished." Many won't make it through, and those who do will be forever changed. Living amid the rubble are sisters Emma and Audrey. One is engaged to be married; the other is in a secret relationship with another woman. As the bombs fall, and tomorrow feels further and further away, these young women must grapple with the cultural expectations standing firm around them, and try to seize control of their destinies. After all, Emma thinks, if one is to survive, one must survive for something. Featuring the voices of the community--from their mother to the wee girl down the road--These Days is a timeless and poignant tale of interrupted girlhood, life under duress, and the struggle to stay true to ourselves. Winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Lucy Caldwell's portrait of the Belfast Blitz is to be cherished. "What a visceral, powerful, authentic novel It's hard to believe Lucy Caldwell didn't actually live through the Belfast Blitz, it's so accurately depicted. I felt I was there with the bombs, the blood, the chaos, the fear, and the resilience." --Tracy Chevalier, New York Times bestselling author of Girl With A Pearl Earring

'One of the finest short-storywriters at work today. These stories are honest, finely nuanced and indelible.'WENDY ERSKINE'One of our best short story writers.' THE TIMES'You'll lose yourself in this collection and, most likely, find yourself too. Each story is a masterclass.'JAN CARSONThe much-anticipated new collection from the BBC National Short Story Award-winning author of Multitudes and Intimacies.I still sometimes wonder if one could draw a window in the wall, or in the air, and step through it together. To somewhere else, entirely new.From a highly charged Christmas party in Belfast to a passionate affair in Blitz-era London, to a trip to Marrakech which could form a new family, the thirteen striking stories of Openings pulse with possibility and illuminate those fleeting but recognisable moments of heartbreak and hope that can change the course of a life.'It takes a writer as subtle, compassionate and clear-eyed as Caldwell to track the hidden forces that work upon us, to illuminate our secret selves. This is prose that liberates.'CLAIRE KILROY'Caldwell has a glorious skill for creating narratives in which every element works in perfect tandem.'SUNDAY TIMES

An "exquisitely lyrical" (Louise Kennedy) novel from a singular Irish writer following two sisters over the course of four nights as they reckon with their futures in war-torn Belfast. April 1941: Belfast has escaped the worst of the Second World War--so far. Over the next two months, it will be so destroyed from above that people will say, in horror, "My God, Belfast is finished." Many won't make it through, and those who do will be forever changed. Living amid the rubble are sisters Emma and Audrey. One is engaged to be married; the other is in a secret relationship with another woman. As the bombs fall, and tomorrow feels further and further away, these young women must grapple with the cultural expectations standing firm around them, and try to seize control of their destinies. After all, Emma thinks, if one is to survive, one must survive for something. Featuring the voices of the community--from their mother to the wee girl down the road--These Days is a timeless and poignant tale of interrupted girlhood, life under duress, and the struggle to stay true to ourselves. Winner of the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Lucy Caldwell's portrait of the Belfast Blitz is to be cherished.

'One of the finest short-storywriters at work today. These stories are honest, finely nuanced and indelible in their impact.'WENDY ERSKINE'One of our best short story writers.' THE TIMES'You'll lose yourself in this collection and, most likely, find yourself too. Each story is a masterclass in attentiveness.'JAN CARSONThe much-anticipated new collection from the BBC National Short Story Award-winning author of Multitudes and Intimacies.I still sometimes wonder if one could draw a window in the wall, or in the air, and step through it together. To somewhere else, entirely new.From a passionate affair in Blitz-era London, to a highly charged Christmas party in Belfast, to a trip to Marrakech which could form a new family, the thirteen striking stories of Openings pulse with possibility and illuminate those fleeting but recognisable moments of heartbreak and hope that can change the course of a life.'It takes a writer as subtle, compassionate and clear-eyed as Caldwell to track the hidden forces that work upon us, to illuminate our secret selves. This is prose that liberates.'CLAIRE KILROY'Caldwell has a glorious skill for creating narratives in which every element works in perfect tandem.'SUNDAY TIMES

WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTIONWINNER OF THE E. M. FORSTER AWARDAS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4s BOOK AT BEDTIMETwo sisters. Four nights. One City.April, 1941. Belfast has escaped the worst of the war - so far. Following the lives of sisters Emma and Audrey - one engaged to be married, the other in a secret relationship with another woman - as they try to survive the horrors of the Belfast Blitz, These Days is an unforgettable novel about lives lived under duress, about family, and about how we try to stay true to ourselves'Brilliantly evokes wartime love and heartbreak.' Guardian'Breathtakingly good. A novel of enormous heart; full of luminous passages of prose.' Observer'Meticulously researched, perfectly imagined, full of compassion and emotional truth.' CLARE CHAMBERS

In eleven stories, Intimacies exquisitely charts the steps and missteps of young women trying to find their place in the world. From a Belfast student ordering illegal drugs online to end an unwanted pregnancy to a young mother's brush with mortality, and from a Christmas Eve walking the city centre streets when everything seems possible, to a night flight from Canada which could change a life irrevocably, these are stories of love, loss and exile, of new beginnings and lives lived away from 'home'. 'Embedded in these stories are exquisite, often moving descriptions where everyday moments mix with the monumental.' Financial Times

*Includes the winner of the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award*'Smart, nuanced and sometimes heart-stopping.' Anne Enright'Outstanding.' Guardian'Eleven perfect stories.' Irish Independent'Glorious.' The Times'My FAVE collection ever.' Pandora SykesIn eleven stories, Intimacies exquisitely charts the steps and missteps of young women trying to find their place in the world. From a Belfast student ordering illegal drugs online to end an unwanted pregnancy to a young mother's brush with mortality, and from a Christmas Eve walking the city centre streets when everything seems possible, to a night flight from Canada which could change a life irrevocably, these are stories of love, loss and exile, of new beginnings and lives lived away from 'home'.'Embedded in these stories are exquisite, often moving descriptions where everyday moments mix with the monumental.' Financial Times

This pioneering anthology goes beyond awareness building to engage seriously with the societal prevalence of sexist abuse and domestic violence, and the legacies of that abuse and violence in the lives of survivors. Approaching difficult subject matter with candor, sensitivity, and grace, the volume is timely, and deeply moving.

A group of teenage boys take turns assessing each other’s changing bodies before a Friday night disco… A grieving woman strikes up an unlikely friendship with a fellow traveller on a night train to Kiev… An unusually well-informed naturalist is eyed with suspicion by his comrades on a forest exhibition with a higher purpose… The stories shortlisted for the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award with Cambridge University take place in liminal spaces – their characters find themselves in transit, travelling along flight paths, train lines and roads, or in moments where new opportunities or directions suddenly seem possible. From the reflections of a new mother flying home after a funeral, to an ailing son’s reluctance to return to the village of his childhood, these stories celebrate small kindnesses in times of turbulence, and demonstrate a connection between one another that we might sometimes take for granted. The BBC NSSA is one of the most prestigious prizes for a single short story, with the winning author receiving £15,000, and four further shortlisted authors £600 each. James Runcie is joined on the judging panel by a group of acclaimed writers and critics including: Booker Prize shortlisted novelist Fiona Mozley; award winning writer, poet and winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize, Derek Owusu; multi-award winning Irish novelist and short story writer, Donal Ryan; and returning judge, Di Speirs, Books Editor at BBC Radio.

AN IRISH TIMES BEST IRISH BOOK OF THE 21ST CENTURY 'Beautifully crafted, and so finely balanced that she holds the reader right up against the tender humanity of her characters.' Eimear McBride'A writer of rare elegance and beauty, Caldwell doesn't just get inside her characters' minds. She perches in the precarious chambers of their hearts, telling their stories truthfully and tenderly.' IndependentMultitudes is the beautiful debut story collection from the acclaimed, prize-winning novelist and playwright Lucy CaldwellFrom Belfast to London and back again the ten stories that comprise Caldwell's first collection explore the many facets of growing up - the pain and the heartache, the tenderness and the joy, the fleeting and the formative - or 'the drunkenness of things being various'. Stories of longing and belonging, they culminate with the heart-wrenching and unforgettable title story.

When Lara was twelve, and her younger brother Alfie eight, their father died in a helicopter crash. A prominent plastic surgeon, and Irishman, he had honed his skills on the bomb victims of the Troubles. But the family grew up used to him being absent: he only came to London for two weekends a month to work at the Harley Street Clinic, where he met their mother years before, and they only once went on a family holiday together, to Spain, where their mother cried and their father lost his temper and left early.Because home, for their father, wasn't Earls Court: it was Belfast, where he led his other life...Narrated by Lara, nearing forty and nursing her dying mother, All the Beggars Riding is the heartbreaking portrait of a woman confronting her past just as she realises that time is running out

When Euan and Ruth set off with their young daughter to live in Bahrain, it is meant to be an experience and adventure they will cherish. But on the night they arrive, Ruth discovers the truth behind the missionary work Euan has planned and feels her world start to crumble. Far from home, and with events spiralling towards war in nearby Iraq, she starts to question her faith - in Euan, in their marriage and in all she has held dear.With Euan so often away, she is confined to their guarded compound with her neighbours and, in particular, Noor, a troubled teenager recently returned to Bahrain to live with her father. Confronted by temptations and doubt, each must make choices that could change all of their lives for ever.Compelling, passionate and deeply resonant, The Meeting Point is a novel about idealism and innocence, about the unexpected turns life can take and the dangers and chances that await us.

Sophie and Calliope have never been to school. Their mum ran away from home when she was seventeen to join the New Age movement and the girls were raised in a series of ashrams, communes and impromptu raves.When Sophie gets ill, they return to Birmingham - a strange new world where meditation and tree-hugging are replaced with maths homework and TV and the grandmother they have never met. And it's against this bewildering new backdrop - the normality she's always longed for - that Sophie must come to terms with her mortality.Lucy Caldwell's Notes to Future Self opened at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in February 2011.

We are where we come from?' That's not true. That's not true because if that's true there's no hope for any of us.Lori is coming home from her first term at university. It's only been a few weeks and already things have gone badly wrong. But none of the rest of the family knows, or understands, what really happened.In this fiercely observed family drama, three teenage girls struggle to define who they are, and why, and where they might be going.Leaves won the George Devine Award 2006, the premier award for new writing by an emerging playwright in the UK and Ireland. The play opened at the Druid Theatre, Galway in March 2007 before transferring to the Royal Court Theatre, London.