This Interim Time
Published on 15. May 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
216 pages
978-1-84351-922-5 (ISBN)
Description
How do we live when our loved ones are dying? How do we make sense of the world in their wake? And how do we balance love in the present with memory of the past?
As she witnesses her mother's descent into dementia and a beloved friend's cruel battle with cancer, Oona Frawley reconsiders the death of her father in New York decades earlier, the loss of her parents' home in Ireland before she was born, and the births of her own children. Balancing between grief at the passing of those closest to her, and joy at the emergence of new life, Frawley has wrought a stunning meditation on memory, family and the brief windows of life we share with those we love.
Utterly humane, fearlessly honest and always, at its core, hopeful, This Interim Time is a powerful, moving work at once intensely personal and entirely universal.
Reviews / Votes
'An exquisitely observed meditation on grief that leaves us at a place of wonder.' -- Paul Lynch, author of Prophet Song 'A gorgeous dispatch on origins and rootedness, on what we lose and gain as we move through this world.It is rare to read a thing so true, that shows you its beating heart word by word.'
-- Sue Rainsford, author of Redder Days 'A moving collection about parents and parenting, about friendship and togetherness, about how we are brought together by loss - and, most of all, about our shared need for understanding through love. Beautiful and lyrical, this book will keep you company in both bright and dark times. For anyone who loved Joan Didion's Year of Magical Thinking, this book is for you.' -- Emilie Pine, author of Notes to Self 'A beautifully-paced unravelling of family time that patiently untangles the snags of births and deaths. A performance of memory as a recursive eulogy that questions itself: how can words wrap vulnerable bodies; how can they stretch around the unworded mysteries of life, of what happens after and before?' -- Joanna Walsh, author of Amateurs! and Girl Online 'This Interim Time is beautiful both in its intention and in its execution. A book made luminous by hurt, graced by insight and love. Michael Ondaatje's words the heart is an organ of fire run through it. A haunting and brilliant collection.' -- Eoin McNamee, author of The Bureau 'There is so much beauty in this collection of love, grief, and of the attempt to make sense of experience: that beauty is sharp and sometimes breathtaking, but it is also generous and full of compassion, and it runs rich with an intelligence and attention to crystalline detail that is enough, frequently, to make the reader stop, and understand something about their own life, and understand something about life itself. Which is to say that this book, this braid of beauty and wisdom, is a gift.' -- Belinda McKeon, author of Tender 'Fragmentary yet fully realised, heart-breaking yet restorative, This Interim Time is a stunning literary achievement and an exquisite meditation on love - and its ultimate expression, grief.' -- Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses 'A raw exploration of the past ... A beautiful, delicate, skilfully-meandering book.' -- Irish Examiner 'The fragmentary style of the essays lends depth and vividness to the memories unearthed and juxtaposed ... an absorbing and moving read.' -- Jessica Traynor, Irish Times 'Tenderly and sensitively done ... A wonderful, really beautiful book.' -- Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning 'It's such a beautiful book, one of the best I read this year ... It's fantastic.' -- All About Books, Dublin City FM 'Set apart not just by the quality of writing but by the depths of its observations ... a quite brilliant writer.' -- Sunday Independent 'A fine collection ... Related with honesty and restraint. A moving read.' -- Anne Cunningham, Meath Chronicle '[Frawley] moves between past and present with striking honesty, revealing how love can be blissful and so fragile.' -- The Sunday Times, Best Irish Books of 2025 It touches on so many aspects of our humanity. -- The Nerve Podcast
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Dublin
Ireland
Product notice
16:10 Format
Dimensions
Height: 138 mm
Width: 216 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
288 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84351-922-5 (9781843519225)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Oona Frawley was born in New York in 1972 to Irish parents and spent part of each year in Ireland as a child. She received a doctorate in Irish literature from the Graduate School and University Center in New York and has taught at the City University of New York, University College Dublin, Queen's University, Belfast and Trinity College, Dublin. She currently lectures at the Irish National University, Maynooth. She has published five books, including first novel, Flight, which was published in 2014 by Tramp Press. She lives in Wicklow with her family.