Overview

EQUAL PARTS HILARIOUS AND PROFOUND, THE ALTERNATIVES IS A POWERFUL NEW NOVEL ABOUT FOUR GIFTED IRISH SISTERS, FROM A MAJOR LITERARY VOICE. PERFECT FOR FANS OF JONATHAN FRANZEN, MAGGIE O'FARRELL AND CLAIRE VAYE WATKINS. Olwen was plunged prematurely into adulthood when her parents died in tragic circumstances. She and her three younger sisters – each single, each with a PhD – are now in their thirties and leading disparate, distanced lives. Until one day Olwen, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the Earth's future, abruptly vanishes from her home. Together for the first time in years, her three siblings descend on the Irish countryside in search of a sister who doesn't actually want to be found. In an isolated rural bungalow they reach into their uncommon past, confronting both old wounds and a desperately uncertain future. Fiercely witty and unexpectedly hopeful, The Alternatives is an unforgettable portrait of a family perched on our collective precipice, told by one of Ireland's most gifted storytellers. ‘The Alternatives is both a book of ideas and a gripping read, formally audacious yet deeply humane. Superb.’ Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind

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9780861545865

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Reviews

'Caoilinn Hughes is one of the most intelligent, surprising, and delightful writers around. The Alternatives made me laugh, cry, and think.' Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses 'I wish I knew how Caoilinn Hughes has managed to write a book of such depth and gravity that is also so gripping and relentlessly funny.' Hernan Diaz, author of Trust 'Beautiful... The Alternatives is both a book of ideas and a gripping read, formally audacious yet deeply humane. Superb.' Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind 'The Alternatives is fizzy, brainy, and brilliant, always at the service of a drama of great emotional power. Caoilinn Hughes is an extraordinarily gifted writer.' Joseph O’Neill, author of Netherland 'Hughes's elegiac romp into our collective crises erupts in gorgeous language and sizzles with wit, yet is undergirded by pathos. A shapeshifter of a writer, she can draw any character, any foible with crystalline precision.' Diane Cook, author of The New Wilderness ‘The Alternatives is vintage Caoilinn Hughes—sharp, funny and philosophical, and very much a novel for our times.’ Carys Davies, author of The Mission House 'A novel so full of verve that one gains energy from reading it. The prose is a delight, and the force of the author’s intelligence would be overwhelming if not for its warmth and wit.' Jing-Jing Lee, author of How We Disappeared 'Moving, richly detailed... Intelligent, impassioned, and wholly satisfying.' Kirkus (starred review) 'The Alternatives, is yet another example of [Caoilinn Hughes'] gift for illuminating the dark places in the lives of dysfunctional, but deeply sympathetic, families… Bighearted, wise, and frequently sharply funny novel.' Shelf Awareness

'Caoilinn Hughes is one of the most intelligent, surprising, and delightful writers around. The Alternatives made me laugh, cry, and think.' -- Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses 'I wish I knew how Caoilinn Hughes has managed to write a book of such depth and gravity that is also so gripping and relentlessly funny.' -- Hernan Diaz, author of Trust 'Caoilinn Hughes's beautiful new novel uses a fairy tale premise - four sisters, orphaned in their youth, each brilliant in her own way - to explore some of the most pressing issues of our time: the environment, politics, and how to live in the world. The Alternatives is both a book of ideas and a gripping read, formally audacious yet deeply humane. Superb.' -- Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind PRAISE FOR THE WILD LAUGHTER by Caoilinn Hughes: 'Powerful...darkly adventurous... An Irish Cain and Abel.' Guardian   'I loved this book. So funny and bleak. I loved the madness, the tone, the ending, the realisation, The Third Policeman charge of the whole thing.' Roddy Doyle, author of The Commitments  

Author Information

Caoilinn Hughes is an Irish writer and poet whose second novel, The Wild Laughter (2020) won the Encore Award 2021, was longlisted for the 2021 Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize, and was shortlisted for several awards including the Dalkey Emerging Writer Literary Award. Her first novel, Orchid & the Wasp (2018), won the Collyer Bristow Prize 2019 and shortlisted for the Hearst Big Book Awards and the Butler Literary Award. She holds a PhD from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and is currently the Oscar Wilde Centre Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin.

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