About the Author

SARAH GILMARTIN is a critic who reviews fiction for the Irish Times. She is co-editor of the anthology Stinging Fly Stories and has an MFA from University College Dublin. She won Best Playwright at the inaugural Short+Sweet Dublin festival. Her short stories have been published in The Dublin Review, The Tangerine and New Irish Writing. Her story 'The Wife' won the 2020 Mairtin Crawford Award at Belfast Book Festival. Her debut novel Dinner Party was an Irish Times bestseller and was shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards.

Reviews

'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

'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

'A hugely gripping literary page-turner. Sharp, visceral and shocking' - Claire Powell, author of At the Table

'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

'A brilliantly observed immersive novel which tells the 'me too' story from every angle' - Amber Medland, author of Wild Pets

'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 (author of Elizabeth is Missing) Irish Independent


'Fantastic... a layered and thoughtful story about misbehaviour and who bears the impact of it' - Fiction of 2023, The Journal