Overview

TWO COUPLES, TWENTY YEARS AND AN UNFORGETTABLE STORY OF LOVE, SECRETS AND BETRAYAL. 'Wonderfully authentic, electrifying - there are dramas within dramas here and the unravelling is exhilarating when it comes' Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures 'You will not be able to stop reading this story of the deepest of betrayals' Emilie Pine, author of Ruth Pen 'A natural writer' Anne Enright, author of The Wren, The Wren Dylan, Stevie and Ben have been inseparable since their days at Trinity, when everything seemed possible. A glance between them can still conjure their younger selves: dancing beneath pulsing lights, the sharp taste of salt after swims in Dublin Bay. Two decades on, life feels smaller. Dylan, once a rugby star, is stranded on the sofa, cared for by his wife Rachel. Across town, Stevie and Ben's relationship has settled into weary routine. Then, after countless auditions, Ben lands a role in Pinter's Betrayal. As rehearsals unfold, the play's shifting allegiances seep into reality, reviving old jealousies and awakening sudden longings, as each must reckon with how far they're willing to go in pursuit of desire.Wry, sexy and deftly observed, Little Vanities is a novel about the dangerous thrill of stepping outside the roles we've been given - and the distance between the lives we imagine and the ones we live.

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9781805338031

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Reviews

Wonderfully authentic, electrifying - there are dramas within dramas here and the unravelling is exhilarating when it comes -- Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures Messy, complicated, compelling, you will not be able to stop reading this story of the deepest of betrayals -- Emilie Pine, author of Ruth & Pen Little Vanities is a riveting tale of emotional infidelity, in which the reader's loyalty is constantly shifting. It had me hooked from the first page to the last. Gilmartin's wry observations on human behaviour are a joy. She understands that lust and betrayal are thrilling- when they happen to other people. I devoured this book. -- Aingeala Flannery, author of The Amusements Gilmartin writes about relationships with great precision and insight. Her characters find themselves trapped by their life choices and reckoning with the cost of overturning them. This is a scrupulous and elegant novel about the realities of adulthood -- Kathleen MacMahon, author of Nothing But Blue Sky Acutely observed, beautifully written, compelling readable, fizzing with insight and truthfulness, this is a wonderful novel -- Joseph O'Connor, author of Star of the Sea Gilmartin is a natural writer: she gives us terrific, complex characters and strong themes, in a prose that is fluent and charged with insight -- Anne Enright, author of The Wren, The Wren

Author Information

Sarah Gilmartin's short stories have been published in The Dublin Review, The Tangerine and The Stinging Fly. She won the Máirtín Crawford Short Story Award in 2020. Her novels Dinner Party: A Tragedy (2021), Service (2023) and the forthcoming Little Vanities (2026) are published by ONE. She was the 2025 Arts Council Writer-in-Residence at Dublin City University.

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