Getting the Electric
A bold, playful and utterly original collection of stories from the author of FAIR PLAY
Published on 30. April 2026
256 pages
978-1-0350-3756-8 (ISBN)
Description
'Louise Hegarty can do anything. She's fearless. And I loved these playful, clever, perfect stories' - MARIANA ENRIQUEZ
'Phenomenally talented' - THE SUNDAY TIMES
'Borges for the CMAT generation' - THE IRISH TIMES
Are you ready to play?
Have you ever found yourself doom-scrolling, worrying about that weird pain in your leg, only to have your plans for the day completely trashed by the appearance of a literal axe-wielding troll?
What about that time you came across a perfect double of yourself in the street?
Or the gorilla suit you put on one day only for it to fuse with your skin?
When those children went missing from your village, did you know for sure it was the electricity that took them?
And down in the basement of your ancestral family home, what is it that's making that THUMP . . . THUMP . . . THUMP . . .
Bold, funny, and wild, Louise Hegarty's debut collection will turn you upside down and inside out, if it doesn't take you apart completely.
* * * * *
PRAISE FOR FAIR PLAY
'A treat . . . Takes on the biggest questions of life and death' - Paul Murray
'Dazzling' - Colin Walsh
'Brilliant' - The Times
'Ingenious' - The Telegraph
'Terrific' - The New York Times
'Heartbreaking' - The Guardian
'Sally Rooney meets The Secret History' - The Sunday Times
'Phenomenally talented' - THE SUNDAY TIMES
'Borges for the CMAT generation' - THE IRISH TIMES
Are you ready to play?
Have you ever found yourself doom-scrolling, worrying about that weird pain in your leg, only to have your plans for the day completely trashed by the appearance of a literal axe-wielding troll?
What about that time you came across a perfect double of yourself in the street?
Or the gorilla suit you put on one day only for it to fuse with your skin?
When those children went missing from your village, did you know for sure it was the electricity that took them?
And down in the basement of your ancestral family home, what is it that's making that THUMP . . . THUMP . . . THUMP . . .
Bold, funny, and wild, Louise Hegarty's debut collection will turn you upside down and inside out, if it doesn't take you apart completely.
* * * * *
PRAISE FOR FAIR PLAY
'A treat . . . Takes on the biggest questions of life and death' - Paul Murray
'Dazzling' - Colin Walsh
'Brilliant' - The Times
'Ingenious' - The Telegraph
'Terrific' - The New York Times
'Heartbreaking' - The Guardian
'Sally Rooney meets The Secret History' - The Sunday Times
Reviews / Votes
Louise Hegarty can do anything. She's fearless. And I loved these playful, clever, perfect stories -- Mariana Enriquez, author of <i>The Dangers of Smoking in Bed</i> Melancholy, comic and tender . . . Hegarty has a gift for constructing uniquely weird worlds with something dark burning at the core -- Leon Craig, author of <i>The Decadence</i> Formally promiscuous, dark, jolting and rapturous . . . It's difficult to imagine a more perfect dispatch from 2020's Ireland than Borges for the CMAT generation - and here it is * The Irish Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
File size
1,13 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-0350-3756-8 (9781035037568)
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
Louise Hegarty's stories have appeared in Banshee, The Tangerine, The Stinging Fly and The Dublin Review and have been featured on BBC Radio 4. She was the inaugural winner of the Sunday Business Post/Penguin Ireland Short Story Prize and recently her story 'Now, Voyager' was produced as part of A City and A Garden, a new state-of-the-art sonic experience commissioned by Sounds from a Safe Harbour in association with Body & Soul and presented as part of Brightening Air | Coisceim Coiligh. Her short story 'Getting the Electric', originally published in The Stinging Fly, has been optioned by Fibin Media. Fair Play is her debut novel.
