Susannah Dickey

'A rare talent, and certainly one to watch' SUNDAY TIMES 'One of literature's major new talents' OBSERVER How do you mourn someone you never really knew? Three siblings – Anna, Gemma and Matthew – will have to work that out quickly. Monday is the day of their gentle, but distant, father’s funeral, and for the first time in a long while they are under one roof with their mother, imperious Yvonne, awaiting the arrival of their aunt Amy, an award-winning poet. Yet, as the funeral looms, their everyday concerns refuse to diminish: will newly sex-obsessed Gemma work out what she wants from life, beyond her mother’s expectations? Can Anna maintain the fine balance between desire and nonchalance with the sort-of, not-quite-exclusive boyfriend, back in London? Will Amy’s past explode the relationships of the present? And, crucially, will Yvonne pull off her grand, post-funeral family dinner, the solution to what she fears may be an unsolvable problem? Told from five different perspectives, into the wreck worries at the knotty complexities of one family’s bonds, written with Susannah Dickey’s trademark empathy and wit. Praise for Tennis Lessons 'I loved Tennis Lessons so much. Susannah is a phenomenally talented writer' ELIZABETH DAY 'A raw, fierce, shockingly honest coming-of-age story' LOUISE O'NEILL 'Incredibly funny . . . by turns charming and disgusting and I loved it' NELL FRIZZELL

'A rare talent, and certainly one to watch' SUNDAY TIMES 'One of literature's major new talents' OBSERVER How do you mourn someone you never really knew? Three siblings – Anna, Gemma and Matthew – will have to work that out quickly. Monday is the day of their gentle, but distant, father’s funeral, and for the first time in a long while they are under one roof with their mother, imperious Yvonne, awaiting the arrival of their aunt Amy, an award-winning poet. Yet, as the funeral looms, their everyday concerns refuse to diminish: will newly sex-obsessed Gemma work out what she wants from life, beyond her mother’s expectations? Can Anna maintain the fine balance between desire and nonchalance with the sort-of, not-quite-exclusive boyfriend, back in London? Will Amy’s past explode the relationships of the present? And, crucially, will Yvonne pull off her grand, post-funeral family dinner, the solution to what she fears may be an unsolvable problem? Told from five different perspectives, into the wreck worries at the knotty complexities of one family’s bonds, written with Susannah Dickey’s trademark empathy and wit. Praise for Tennis Lessons 'I loved Tennis Lessons so much. Susannah is a phenomenally talented writer' ELIZABETH DAY 'A raw, fierce, shockingly honest coming-of-age story' LOUISE O'NEILL 'Incredibly funny . . . by turns charming and disgusting and I loved it' NELL FRIZZELL

Winner of the PEN Heaney PrizeShortlisted for the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry PrizeA Guardian and Irish Times Book of 2023The much-anticipated debut poetry collection from acclaimed novelist Susannah Dickey, on the subject of our cultural obsession with true crime.ISDAL is a timely interrogation of the true crime genre. In the first of its three parts, we follow the flirty co-presenters of a podcast about the mystery of 'Isdal Woman', whose burnt remains were discovered in Norway in 1970 and who has never been identified.At the centre of the book is an inquiry into our perennial obsession with female victims, sexiness, and death: ‘The death in question has already occurred’, the poet observes, ‘has occurred to someone sufficiently abstract as to allow us to romp gainfully, guilelessly, guiltlessly through a simulacrum of death’s corridors’.The free verse poems in the final section both explore and – perhaps inevitably – enact the ethical ambiguities of the genre. Witty, excoriating, formally ingenious, ISDAL marks the arrival of a thrilling talent in contemporary poetry.

The lives of a bereaved young woman and her neighbour who is consumed by her affair with a married man entwine in this dark, compelling and compassionate coming-of age novel.'A poignant, deft portrayal of love, obsession and grief' STYLIST'Susannah Dickey is a phenomenal talent and I loved this novel.' ELIZABETH DAY'I loved Common Decency . . . such a propulsive joy to read too.' MEGAN NOLAN FROM THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF TENNIS LESSONSIn an apartment building in Belfast, two women wrestle with the sorrows and spectres of love and loss.Since her mother's death, Lily has withdrawn from the world, trapped between grief and anger. She has to break out of this damaging cycle - but how?Upstairs, Siobhán is consumed by her affair with a married man. Her days revolve around his sporadic texts and rare visits. She barely notices the strange girl who lives below and dawdles in the foyer.But Lily is keeping a close eye on her neighbour, whose life seems so much better and more fulfilling than her own. When resentment evolves into something darker and more urgent, she decides to teach Siobhán a lesson...'Sharp as tacks, extremely funny and deeply moving. This novel is very good company.' JAN CARSON

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.

For fans of I MAY DESTROY YOU and FLEABAG and for readers who want to laugh and cry: the brave, beautiful, sometimes brutal story of a young misfit and her rocky road to womanhood, stopping at each year along the way.'I loved Tennis Lessons so much. Susannah is a phenomenally talented writer' ELIZABETH DAY'A raw, fierce, shockingly honest coming-of-age story' LOUISE O'NEILL 'Incredibly funny . . . by turns charming and disgusting and I loved it' NELL FRIZZELL You're strange and wrong. You've known it from the beginning.This is the voice that rings in your ears. Because you never say the right thing. You're a disappointment to everyone. You're a far cry from beautiful - and your thoughts are ugly too.You seem bound to fail, bound to break. But you know what it is to laugh with your best friend, to feel the first tentative tingles of attraction, to take exquisite pleasure in the affront of your unruly body.You just need to find your place.From dead pets and crashed cars to family traumas and misguided love affairs, Susannah Dickey's revitalizing debut novel plunges us into the private world of one young woman as she navigates her rocky way to adulthood.'Brilliant . . . a wonderful writer, hugely talented, very funny and insightful' ALAN DAVIES'Propulsive . . . brilliantly vivid . . . stays in the mind long after reading' IRISH TIMES'A beautifully written and psychologically incisive bildungsroman...the arrival of a young writer to watch' OBSERVER

There is an arresting and profound specificity to Susannah Dickey's astute tragicomedy, in which the sky is 'the colour of a cous cous salad', gods rub shoulders with video game characters and everyone is enslaved to desire. Corrupting the classically male, reportedly frivolous hendecasyllabic form, Dickey forges a register that feels both ancient and millennial. At the centre of this work beats a star-bright pain, seen through the poems' breezy vacillations and squandered love, crushed to a shimmer.