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Old Romantics
Shortlisted for the Kate O’Brien Award • Shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year
Like Dubliners, if Dubliners were “Cat Person” as a feminist mock-epic about a writer’s coming of age—and every Dubliner was named Margaret.
A woman pursues a man who cut ahead of her in a line. Two nice people report that a child is being left unsupervised at a local beach. Romances, old and new, shift and sour. Following Maggie Armstrong’s intrepid hero, Margaret, through first love, first bad date, first job, first extremely bad date, and on into midlife and its attendant disillusionment—and surprising revelations—Old Romantics is an acutely observed and hideously entertaining collection of linked short stories from an astonishing new talent. Slippery, flawed, and acute, Armstrong’s narrator navigates a world of awkward expectation and latent hostility with piercing insight into the trials and tribulations of attempting to be human while female.
Praise for Old RomanticsThe stories in Old Romantics are tender heartsick crisp and haunting They will stay with youColin Barrett Booker Prizenominated author of Wild HousesAs for the prose you could bathe in it The details the clever turns of phrase A ticking clock is strict censorious like a clacking tongue A heart bangs like a broken toyNiamh Donnelly Irish TimesThe collection builds to four final stories with power insight and compassion for human frailtyMartina Devlin Irish IndependentAn audacious debutIrish TimesReaders of Old Romantics will be swept up in the verve of Armstrongs storytelling but the deeper purpose of the humour as with all good comedic writing is that of connection of recognition this crazy thing called life tell me you feel it too The more we laugh the closer we are to tears Old Romantics is a collection big on feeling on living romanticism with a capital RSarah Gilmartin The Stinging FlyOld Romantics is a dazzling snapshot of Dublin in the early 21st century full of wry social observation This book deserves a broad readership Its one for your friend or your sister or your favourite daughterinlaw it will appeal to anyone who likes clever modern writing about womanhoodAingeala Flannery Irish IndependentOld Romantics is somehow both elegant and fiery Maggie Armstrongs Dublin is full of surprises An excellent debutNicole FlatteryExquisite and inventive prose conjures simmering menace along with sardonic comedy and razorsharp selfawareness in this mesmerising collectionSophie WhiteFunny and awkward and honest and perceptive and shrewd a very exciting new voice in Irish fictionLouise ONeill
There are no awards found for this book.
Details
Dimensions:
272 Pages
8.5in * 5.3in * .75in
1.00gr
Published:
April 01, 2025
Publisher:
ISBN:
9781771966610
Language:
eng
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