Habitat follows seven neighbours over the course of a surreal and life-changing week as their mid-century apartment building in Oslo begins to inexplicably break down around them.
Connected by familial ties, long acquaintance, simmering feuds and longing glimpses, the residents of the building are bound to one another in more ways than they know. As each inhabitant is touched by strange and sinister phenomena, and their apartment-sized worlds begin to fray at the seams, they struggle to grasp that this is a shared crisis that cannot be borne alone.
This remarkable debut novel from one of Ireland's most promising emerging talents is a startling parable of our uncertain age, as well as a beautiful and inciteful examination of how we deal with seismic events beyond our comprehension and how we can only truly find meaning through shared understanding.
'In this unsettling contemporary fable, which is a brilliant analogy for our collective apathy in the face of environmental destruction, Shine depicts a disparate group of characters, each of whom is isolated in their struggle to manage impending chaos in an apartment block in Oslo. Lucid and uncanny, the story lingers long in the mind.' Cathy Sweeney
'Truly uncanny - a novel that marries the cosmic nightmare of Darren Aronofsky's Mother! with the sociological portraits of Ken Loach. Chapter by chapter, in the face of forces that are undeniable and elemental, Habitat's domesticated world of rules and regulations deforms itself into something unsettling and eerily recognisable. I've never read anything quite like it.' Colin Walsh
'Shine's gaze is fresh, observant and unsettling. Habitat is an inventive and compelling read, a remarkable debut from an immensely talented writer.' Danielle McLaughlin
'Habitat is an uncanny fable of, and for, a disintegrating world - a bold and strikingly original debut from a sophisticated new voice in Irish fiction.' Lucy Caldwell
Rezensionen / Stimmen
'Highly original ... It's far too well-written and engaging to be depressing. But it is a tiny bit terrifying.' Anne Cunningham, Meath Chronicle 'Truly uncanny - a novel that marries the cosmic nightmare of Darren Aronofsky's Mother! with the sociological portraits of Ken Loach. Chapter by chapter, in the face of forces that are undeniable and elemental, Habitat's domesticated world of rules and regulations deforms itself into something unsettling and eerily recognisable. I've never read anything quite like it.' -- Colin Walsh 'Habitat is an uncanny fable of, and for, a disintegrating world - a bold and strikingly original debut from a sophisticated new voice in Irish fiction.'
-- Lucy Caldwell 'In Shine's uniquely surrealist set-up, our species is exposed as being unprepared for the massive challenges coming at us ... A strangely compelling experience, then, one that cannily weds sound narrative structuring to a fanciful allegorical premise. It announces the arrival of an Irish writer whose work is refreshingly removed from the "literary debut" tropes in her homeland.' Hilary White, Sunday Independent 'An original debut ... an intriguing parable about the destruction of our much larger habitat.' Edel Coffey, The Gloss 'A thrilling Oslo mystery ... rich in satire, but also full of empathy.' Alannah Hopkin, Irish Examiner 'Catriona Shine's outstanding debut novel Habitat marries its horribly compelling conceit with prose by turns taut and sumptuous, luminous and visceral ... a total astounder.' Juliano Zaffino 'A wonderfully realised exploration of the way we live, enlivened by sharply drawn characters, great use of dark humour and an overall empathy for the human condition. It is a debut that stands out and marks Shine as a real talent to watch.' Cathy, 746 Books 'It's a wonderful oddity when a debut novel is truly uncategorisable, trailblazing with no comparisons readily available ... Shine is tapping into the zeitgeist here in Ireland' Aimee Walsh, RTE
'Bringing her own knowledge of building materials and her skill as a writer together, Shine has created a very unsettling and imaginative tale that really is quite frightening in our current environmental crisis ... Habitat is a penetrating and striking novel, intelligent and convincing.' Mairead Hearne, Swirl and Thread 'Shine's pen is clever and ironic, with an accurate eye for the discomfort that can arise between neighbours.' -- Klassekamper
Sprache
Verlagsort
Produkt-Hinweis
Maße
Höhe: 216 mm
Breite: 137 mm
Dicke: 33 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-84351-887-7 (9781843518877)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Catriona Shine grew up in Ireland and now works as an architect in Oslo. Her writing has appeared in The Dublin Review, Channel, Southword, Aesthetica, Hemingway Shorts, Nanjing Daily and elsewhere. She was awarded the Penfro First Chapter Prize in 2016, shortlisted/placed in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2023, the Sean O'Faolain Short Story Prize 2022, and the IAFOR Vladimir Davide Haiku Award 2017. Habitat was longlisted for the McKitterick Prize 2022. She participated in the Irish Writers Centre's Evolution Programme 2024/2025 and was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2025.
