Eggshells
Caitriona Lally
2015 • Harper Collins
I wanted to write a character who walked the city and was also furiously seeking something. Dublin felt like a grim, closed-off place to me, lacking in opportunity. I deliberately wanted Vivian to look at the city in a different way, seeing magic and potential in street-signs and graffiti and hidden doors in walls.
— Catriona Lally
Eggshells
Caitriona Lally
2015 • Harper Collins
I wanted to write a character who walked the city and was also furiously seeking something. Dublin felt like a grim, closed-off place to me, lacking in opportunity. I deliberately wanted Vivian to look at the city in a different way, seeing magic and potential in street-signs and graffiti and hidden doors in walls.
— Catriona Lally
Description
Vivian is an oddball. An unemployed orphan living in the house of her recently deceased great aunt in North Dublin, Vivian boldly goes through life doing things in her own peculiar way, whether that be eating blue food, cultivating ‘her smell’, wishing people happy Christmas in April, or putting an ad up for a friend called Penelope to check why it doesn’t rhyme with antelope. But behind her heroic charm and undeniable logic, something isn’t right. With each attempt to connect with a stranger or her estranged sister doomed to misunderstanding, someone should ask: is Vivian OK?
A poignant and delightful story of belonging that plays with the myth of the Changeling and takes us by the hand through Dublin. A poetic call for us all to accept each other and find the Vivian within.
Excerpts
Interviews
- Bustle: ‘This Writer Works as a Janitor at the University that just Awarded her a Literary Prize.’
- Arts Council: Interview With Caitriona Lally
- The Washington Post: ‘This Author also Works as a Janitor. She just Won a Prestigious Literary Prize from the University she Cleans.’
- Mehara Lit: Balancing Writing With Parenthood – An Interview With Caitriona Lally
- Tn2 Magazine: Walking On Eggshells – Interview With Caitriona Lally
Prizes & Awards
Reviews
- Sarah Gilmartin, The Irish Times
- Claire Kilroy, The Guardian
- Margaret Madden, Writing.ie
- Louisa McGrath, Dublin Inquirer
- Katharine Weber, The New York Times
- Publishers Weekly
- Kirkus
Audio
- HaperCollins Publishers: Eggshells by Caitriona Lally, read by Olivia Caffrey
- RTÉ: Caitriona Lally on her Rooney Prize Win
- Mixcloud: Radio Interview with the Author, Caitriona Lally
Video
- Pisa Book Festival: Catherine Dunne & Caitriona Lally
- Irish Writers Ctr: Finding Success Through The Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair
- Writers Voices: Eggshells, Caitriona Lally
