Service

Reviews / Votes

A book guaranteed to get people talking... a big topic requiring care, and Gilmartin tackles it with aplomb... both chewy and meaty fare, rare and well done -- John Self * Irish Times * The exhausting and exhilarating life of a high-end restaurant is beautifully recreated in this masterful novel . . . deeply satisfying . . . A writer correctly confident in her recipe -- Emma Healey * Irish Independent * This coolly furious dissection of sexual assault and its aftermath is as carefully constructed as anything served up in the Michelin-starred restaurant run by the chef whose alleged behaviour sets the novel in motion...compelling * Marie Claire * Addictive... a #MeToo story of power imbalances and blurred boundaries which will resonate with many * Red Magazine * A sharp, compelling drama * Good Housekeeping * In clean, clinical prose, Gilmartin lays bare both the power imbalances generated in a hothouse, hierarchical environment, and the schism between women's rights in the wake of MeToo and a country still in thrall to the old patriarchal order * Daily Mail * Absolutely compelling. Every page fizzes with energy and observation. Gilmartin combines effortless, elegant writing with a momentum that propels you onwards, barely pausing until you've reached the end. A masterful novel -- Rebecca Wait, author of I'm Sorry You Feel That Way One of the most darkly addictive novels you're likely to read this year. What begins as a delicious, scandalous glimpse behind the veil of a famous chef's ego and talent, like a fictionalised take on Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, becomes something much more sinister - and even more compelling. * Sunday Business Post * A powerful and compelling novel from a very gifted writer -- Joseph O'Connor, author of My Father's House and The Star of the Sea Sarah Gilmartin's second novel is consummately done. The prose is clean, crisp, perfectly-filleted; the pace and tension perfectly controlled, to the very last page. Superb. -- Lucy Caldwell, author of Intimacies The microculture of a high-end restaurant is lucidly observed: ferocious, minutely accurate, damning -- Ross Raisin, author of A Hunger and God's Own Country A brilliantly observed immersive novel which tells the 'me too' story from every angle -- Amber Medland, author of Wild Pets Sarah Gilmartin gives us a snapshot of a celebrity kitchen in that heady boom-time just before implosion, mining not just the egregious misogyny and violence in service culture, but the paralysis, the blind spots, and the silence that permitted it... Service is gripping, fearless and raw. I could not put it down. -- Una Mannion, author of A Crooked Tree Hooked by Daniel Costello's predatory charms, and then by a thirst for natural justice, I raced through Service. Sarah Gilmartin is a smart, stylish and darkly funny writer -- Aingeala Flannery, author of 'The Amusements' A hugely gripping literary page-turner. Sharp, visceral and shocking -- Claire Powell, author of At the Table I gorged on every page of Sarah Gilmartin's Service, a compelling and brilliant account of power dynamics and sexual politics in the heat of a Dublin kitchen. Her prose is as sharp as a chef's best knife, I couldn't look away. A Michelin star read -- Victoria Kennefick I love the high-octane setting of this novel, with its vivid portrayal of the heavy drinking, hard-living lifestyle of the staff who work in a celebrated restaurant. The story is skilfully told, teasing out the layers of truth and denial that give texture to a toxic history. In her deft handling of the differing interpretations her characters put on their experiences, Sarah Gilmartin gets it absolutely right -- Kathleen MacMahon, author of Women's Prize-longlisted Nothing But Blue Sky