Snowflake
Winner of Newcomer of the Year
Published on 13. May 2021
Book
Hardback
384 pages
978-1-78658-070-2 (ISBN)
Description
WINNER NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR 2021 AT THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS
'Wonderful and mad' Roddy Doyle
'Sparks with tender charm and humour . . . Fresh, bleakly funny' Sunday Times
'Tender, laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving' Louise O'Neill
'GAS and beautiful and truthful and touching' Marian Keyes, author of Grown Ups
'A novel for anyone who's ever felt lost in the world' John Boyne, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies
'Sharp, clever and affecting' The Independent
'Beautifully written . . . emotionally intelligent and thought-provoking' Daily Mail
'Astonishing' Stacey Halls, author of The Familiars
Debbie's brain isn't perfect. Debbie's thoughts aren't unique. Debbie's dreams are all too real.
Debbie White lives on a dairy farm with her mother, Maeve, and her uncle, Billy. Billy sleeps out in a caravan in the garden with a bottle of whiskey and the stars overhead for company. Maeve spends her days recording her dreams, which she believes to be prophecies.
This world is Debbie's normal, but she is about to step into life as a student at Trinity College Dublin. As she navigates between sophisticated new friends and the family bubble, things begin to unravel. Maeve's eccentricity tilts into something darker, while Billy's drinking gets worse. Debbie struggles to cope with the weirdest, most difficult parts of herself and her small life. But if the Whites are mad, they are also fiercely loving, and each other's true place of safety.
Startling, fresh and utterly unique, Snowflake is a story of messy families, messier friendships and how new chapters often mean starting right back at the beginning.
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME PICK
'Wonderful and mad' Roddy Doyle
'Sparks with tender charm and humour . . . Fresh, bleakly funny' Sunday Times
'Tender, laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving' Louise O'Neill
'GAS and beautiful and truthful and touching' Marian Keyes, author of Grown Ups
'A novel for anyone who's ever felt lost in the world' John Boyne, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies
'Sharp, clever and affecting' The Independent
'Beautifully written . . . emotionally intelligent and thought-provoking' Daily Mail
'Astonishing' Stacey Halls, author of The Familiars
Debbie's brain isn't perfect. Debbie's thoughts aren't unique. Debbie's dreams are all too real.
Debbie White lives on a dairy farm with her mother, Maeve, and her uncle, Billy. Billy sleeps out in a caravan in the garden with a bottle of whiskey and the stars overhead for company. Maeve spends her days recording her dreams, which she believes to be prophecies.
This world is Debbie's normal, but she is about to step into life as a student at Trinity College Dublin. As she navigates between sophisticated new friends and the family bubble, things begin to unravel. Maeve's eccentricity tilts into something darker, while Billy's drinking gets worse. Debbie struggles to cope with the weirdest, most difficult parts of herself and her small life. But if the Whites are mad, they are also fiercely loving, and each other's true place of safety.
Startling, fresh and utterly unique, Snowflake is a story of messy families, messier friendships and how new chapters often mean starting right back at the beginning.
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME PICK
Reviews / Votes
Snowflake is a beautiful novel; tender, laugh-out-loud funny, and deeply moving * Louise O'Neill * An astonishing achievement. Louise Nealon is ridiculously talented; already I'm greedy for more * Stacey Halls * Mad and wonderful. I thought I was reading one thing, then discovered - several times as I read - that I was reading a different, even better thing * Roddy Doyle * GAS and beautiful and truthful and touching * Marian Keyes * An incredibly ambitious debut, beautifully written * Sam Baker * A novel for anyone who's ever felt lost in the world, Louise Nealon balances humour and tragedy in a sharp debut * John Boyne * It's a long time since I've loved a novel as much as Snowflake. The prose shines with observations about life love family mental health, milking the cows and what it means to be coming of age in the times we live in - I felt I had discovered a diamond - a real treasure! * Christy Lefteri * Snowflake is raw, sharp-sighted, affirming, and also very very funny. Louise Nealon's prose shimmers as do her irregular and damaged characters. Stunning * Una Mannion * Can a young woman be innocent yet outrageous, longing to succeed at university yet close to failing, deeply embarrassed by her manic depressive mother yet devoted? Yes, yes, yes. Louise Nealon's beguiling narrator Debbie is all these things, and much more. Snowflake is a wonderfully inventive, deeply felt novel full of the best kinds of surprises. * Margot Livesey * Nealon balances humour and devastation well in this relatable novel. * Irish Examiner - 15 debuts to watch out for in 2021 * Nealon tackles uneasy conversations around trauma and grief, sex and consent, self-delusion and the fear of what you might be capable of, deftly and with humour...a story that's sharp, clever and affecting. * The Independent * Sparks with tender charm and humour...marks the arrival of yet another striking Irish literary voice...Debbie's fresh, bleakly funny voice marks her out as original. So are her brilliant, brittle family. These are Beckett-like characters..key to this quirky novel's tender charm. -- Patricia Nicol * The Sunday Times * Beautifully written...emotionally intelligent and thought-provoking...a coming-of-age story with a difference...I can't stop thinking about it. * Daily Mail * Clever, witty, wryly elegant and full of emotional truth. * Irish Independent * Brilliant...already looks set to become a serious literary star...this year's millennial narrative du jour * Harper's Bazaar * Intimate, chatty, immensely readable. There's an original and distinctive voice here, and a strong sense of character and place...Snowflake is an auspicious beginning. -- Kevin Power * The Sunday Times * Filled with wonderful, believable characters...a beautiful debut from a writer unafraid to blend the contemporary with the mystic. * Sunday Business Post *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bonnier Books Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
611 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78658-070-2 (9781786580702)
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
Person
Louise Nealon studied English literature at Trinity College Dublin, and then completed a masters in creative writing at Queen's University Belfast in 2016. She lives on her family farm in County Kildare.