Orchid & the Wasp (SIGNED)

Hughes, Caoilinn

ISBN 10: 178607365X / ISBN 13: 9781786073655

Published by Oneworld Publications, London, 2018

About this Item

Hughes, a Galway-born writer (1985-), made her name as a poet before producing this, her first novel, which won the 2019 Collyer Bristow Prize. Signed on title page.

Seller Inventory # 003020

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Orchid & the Wasp (SIGNED)
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications, London
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 178607365X
• ISBN 13: 9781786073655
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

"A gem of a novel."--Elle
"A winning debut."--The New Yorker
"Caoilinn Hughes is a massive talent."--Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See

WINNER OF THE COLLYER BRISTOW PRIZE * SHORTLISTED FOR THE BUTLER LITERARY AWARD * SHORTLISTED FOR THE HEARST BIG BOOK AWARD * LONGLISTED FOR AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD

An unforgettable young woman navigates Dublin, London and New York, striving to build a life raft for her loved-ones amidst economic and familial collapse.
 
In this dazzlingly original debut novel, award-winning Irish writer Caoilinn Hughes introduces a heroine of mythic proportions in the form of one Gael Foess. A tough, thoughtful, and savvy opportunist, Gael is determined to live life on her own terms. Raised in Dublin by single-minded, careerist parents, Gael learns early how a person's ambitions and ideals can be compromised-- and she refuses to let her vulnerable, unwell younger brother, Guthrie, suffer such sacrifices.
 
When Gael's financier father walks out on them during the economic crash of 2008, her family fractures. Her mother, a once-formidable orchestral conductor, becomes a shadow. And a fateful incident prevents Guthrie from finishing high school. Determined not to let her loved-ones fall victim to circumstance, Gael leaves Dublin for the coke-dusted social clubs of London and Manhattan's gallery scene, always working an angle, but beginning to become a stranger to those who love her. 
 
Written in electric, heart-stopping prose, Orchid & the Wasp is a novel about gigantic ambitions and hard-won truths, chewing through sexuality, class, and politics, and crackling with joyful, anarchic fury. It challenges bootstraps morality with questions of what we owe one another and what we earn. A first novel of astonishing talent, Orchid & the Wasp announces Caoilinn Hughes as one of the most exciting literary writers working today.

About the Author

CAOILINN HUGHES is an Irish writer whose novel Orchid & the Wasp (Hogarth 2018) won the Collyer Bristow Prize, and whose poetry collection Gathering Evidence (Carcanet 2014) won the Irish Times Shine/Strong Award. For her short fiction, she won an O.Henry Prize 2019 and the Moth International Short Story Prize 2018. Her second novel, The Wild Laughter, will be published in May 2020 (Oneworld Publications).