Confessions

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2025

'A remarkable debut. A complex and compulsive read that unravels the intricate twists and revelations among three generations of women with elegance and urgency' Miranda Cowley Heller, bestselling author of THE PAPER PALACE

'A saga: its serious pleasures are its expansiveness and range, and Airey's rare, particular instinct... a cool, bold image of female pain and liberation' Guardian

It is late September in 2001 and the walls of New York are papered over with photos of the missing. Cora Brady's father is there, the poster she made taped to columns and bridges. Her mother died long ago and now, orphaned on the cusp of adulthood, Cora is adrift and alone. Soon, a letter will arrive with the offer of a new life: far out on the ragged edge of Ireland, in the town where her parents were young, an estranged aunt can provide a home and fulfil a long-forgotten promise. There the story of Cora's family is hidden, and in her presence will begin to unspool...

An essential, immersive debut from an astonishing new voice, Confessions traces the arc of three generations of women as they experience in their own time the irresistible gravity of the past: its love and tragedy, its mystery and redemption, and, in all things intended and accidental, the beauty and terrible shade of the things we do.

'A beating heart of a novel, intricate both in its weaving and its unspooling. An irresistible read' Yael van der Wouden, Booker-shortlisted author of THE SAFEKEEP

'Propulsive and utterly captivating ... Airey has shades of the American novelists Donna Tartt and Jeffrey Eugenides in her style' Irish Times