Books to look out for in 2022: It’s going to be a bumper year

In The Quiet Whispers Never Stop (John Murray, April) by Olivia Fitzsimons, a mother and, years later, her daughter plot to escape the stultifying, troubled North.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/books-to-look-out-for-in-2022-it-s-going-to-be-a-bumper-year-1.4758202

The Quiet Whispers Never Stop by Olivia Fitzsimons

• John Murray, April

This novel is also set in Northern Ireland, in the 1980s and 1990s, and is written by a Co Down native. It’s about Nuala Malin, who is struggling with her life – and then finds unexpected refuge with a 17-year-old boy. When she’s subsequently given a chance to leave the north, she does. That was in 1982 – fast forward to 1994, and her daughter Sam Malin plans her own escape. 

https://www.thejournal.ie/irish-books-coming-out-in-2022-5624648-Dec2021/

The Quiet Whispers Never Stop by Olivia Fitzsimons (John Murray)
Northern Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s is the setting for this story of a dysfunctional family by debut novelist Fitzsimons. Mother Nuala Malin struggles to connect to her husband, motherhood and the smallness of her life. She finds unexpected refuge in a 17-year-old boy. Years later, her daughter Sam plans escape and finds solace in an older man.

https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/read-all-about-it-the-hottest-books-of-the-year-ahead-41175124.html

Description

In 1982, Nuala Malin struggles to stay connected, to her husband, to motherhood, to the smallness of her life in the belly of a place that is built on hate and stagnation. Her daughter Sam and baby son PJ keep her tethered to this life she doesn't want. She finds unexpected refuge with a seventeen-year-old boy, but this relationship is only temporary, a sticking plaster on a festering wound. It cannot last and when her chance to leave Northern Ireland comes, Nuala takes it.

In 1994, Sam Malin plans escape. She longs for a life outside her dysfunctional family, far away from the North and all its troubles, free from her quiet brooding father Patsy, who never talks about her mother, Nuala; a woman Sam barely knew, who abandoned them twelve years ago. She finds solace in music, drugs and her best friend Becca, but most of all in an illicit relationship with a jagged, magnetic older man.

She is drawn to him, and he to her, in a way she can't yet comprehend.

Sam is more like her mother than she knows.

https://www.netgalley.co.uk/catalog/book/242269

We’re delighted to announce the 12 awardees for the IWC Evolution Programme 2021; Arnold Thomas Fanning, Deirdre Cartmill, Kevin Curran, Maeve Galvin, Máire T. Robinson, Melatu-Uche Okorie, Michelle Gallen, Liz Quirke, Olivia Fitzsimons, Sheila Armstrong, Sue Divin and Helen Blackhurst. They were selected by our professional judging panel Maria McManus, John Kenny and Mike McCormack.

The Evolution Programme was established to mark the Irish Writers Centre 30th Anniversary, and is an opportunity for published writers resident on the island of Ireland to avail from a series of sustained supports, which are partly tailored to their specific needs. The suite of supports will include bespoke career development with professional editorial, practical or creative support by way of a mentor.

https://irishwriterscentre.ie/iwc-evolution-programme-awardees-2021/

"You have everything to gain. Be brave." Olivia Fitzsimons on her Novel Fair journey. September 11, 2020Irish Writers Centre - News https://irishwriterscentre.ie/blogs/news

SKIN DEEP explores skin’s parallels to architecture and continues Walsh’s obsession with architecture.
Using Arnold Bocklin’s ‘The Isle of the Dead’ (1883) as a reference, SKIN DEEP brings us to an imaginary
island, a medical-tourism destination for the pursuit of the perfect skin.

Writer: Olivia Fitzsimons

Narrator: Shashi Rami
@maryruthwalsh @highlanesdrogheda @wexfordartscentre @artscouncilofireland