Writers Anonymous
Published on 4. April 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
304 pages
978-1-84840-885-2 (ISBN)
Description
Fighting off the boredom of lockdown, acclaimed author Jim Winter decides to share his skills by setting up an anonymous online writing workshop - but his generosity will cost him more than he knows.
Right away, the work of a talented student known only as Deirdre stands out. Her novel concerns the death of Mattie Lantry, a lonely seventeen-year-old found murdered in the now-distant summer of 1980, in the local cemetery of his quiet fishing town. The writing is brilliant, but there's one problem: Jim grew up with Mattie, and Deirdre knows things that only he and his schoolfriends should know. Chapter by chapter, she's revealing a story that he's worked all his life to repress.
Who is Deirdre, and what will her novel uncover? To find out, Jim must return to the town he fled all those years ago. As his buried past and perfect present collide, the stories he's told about his own nature - to his reading public, to his loved ones and to himself - begin to fall apart.
Right away, the work of a talented student known only as Deirdre stands out. Her novel concerns the death of Mattie Lantry, a lonely seventeen-year-old found murdered in the now-distant summer of 1980, in the local cemetery of his quiet fishing town. The writing is brilliant, but there's one problem: Jim grew up with Mattie, and Deirdre knows things that only he and his schoolfriends should know. Chapter by chapter, she's revealing a story that he's worked all his life to repress.
Who is Deirdre, and what will her novel uncover? To find out, Jim must return to the town he fled all those years ago. As his buried past and perfect present collide, the stories he's told about his own nature - to his reading public, to his loved ones and to himself - begin to fall apart.
Reviews / Votes
A magnificent mystery novel. Wall's writing is lyrical and he has a wonderful way with words that draw you into the story - not that you need much persuasion. It's a pacy novel, and the construction, we're reading a story within a story, and then a different version of that story, makes it all the more compelling. -- Deirdre McArdle * Irish Examiner * Wall blends literary thriller and character study, crafting a novel that's emotionally taut and structurally inventive... In this way, Writers Anonymous becomes not just a mystery or a literary satire, but a profound reflection on identity, authorship and the shifting truths we tell ourselves and others. -- Adam Wyeth Writers Anonymous is a heartrending and unsettling novel, one that inflames, confronts and demands the attention of the reader. -- Mairead Hearne Some books are like a profiterole - one gobble and they're gone. But this is not the case with Cork author William Wall's latest offering, Writers Anonymous, a multi- layered thriller more akin to a mille-feuille, a deliciously layered confection to be savoured with a coffee.More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Dublin
Ireland
Dimensions
Height: 137 mm
Width: 215 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
344 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84840-885-2 (9781848408852)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
WILLIAM WALL is the author of seven previous novels, five volumes of poetry and three collections of short stories. His work has won many awards, including the Virginia Faulkner Award and the Raymond Carver Award. In 2017, he was the first European to win the Drue Heinz Literature Prize and, in 2021-2022, he was the first Poet Laureate for Cork City. His novel This is the Country was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
williamwall.net
williamwall.net