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The dark, funny, fiercely honest debut novel about a spirited young misfit and her rocky road to womanhood, stopping at each year along the way.

About the Author

Susannah Dickey is a novelist and poet from Derry. She is the author of four poetry pamphlets- I had some very slight concerns (2017), genuine human values (2018), bloodthirsty for marriage (2020), and Oh! (2022). Her debut collection, ISDAL, will be published by Picador in Autumn 2023. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in The TLS, The Poetry Review and The White Review, and her fiction has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Tennis Lessons, was published in July 2020. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Queen's University Belfast and lives in London. Common Decency is her second novel.

Reviews

This is a raw, fierce, shockingly honest coming-of-age story. Tennis Lessons heralds the arrival of a startling new voice in literary fiction
*Louise O'Neill*

I loved Tennis Lessons so much
*ELIZABETH DAY*

An incredibly funny and poignant portrait of what it is to be young, female and human. The whole thing is witty - the narrative voice, the dialogue, the plot and the detail - while also having searing moments of sadness, discomfort and cruelty. Susannah Dickey has created a world and a main character that is by turns disgusting and charming and I loved it.
*Nell Frizzell*

A beautifully written and psychologically incisive bildungsroman...the arrival of a young writer to watch
*Observer*

Brilliant . . . a wonderful writer, hugely talented, very funny and insightful.
*Alan Davies*

Propulsive . . . brilliantly vivid . . . stays in the mind long after reading
*Irish Times*

Absolutely brilliant . . . touchingly captures the awkward, aching longing of a misfit . . . darkly funny
*Express*

Wonderfully shocking . . . a stunning, original debut.
*Irish Examiner*

Fundamentally intimate . . . beguiling . . . A novel about being normal that is anything but.
*Irish Independent*

Terrific... astute, tender, raw... very funny
*Metro*