Read all about it! Kilkenny writer launches debut novel

A great crowd packed into Mackey’s Bar in Gathabawn on a stunning, sunny evening last Friday to mark the launch of Mouthing, the debut novel from Orla Mackey.

Sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued, Mouthing is a multigenerational portrait of small-town life in Ireland from a refreshing new talent in literary fiction.

Narrated by several generations of villagers, Mouthing traces the misadventures of one small community from the mid-20th Century to the early 21st in a series of highly confessional, darkly humorous, sharply observed monologues. These are people who delight in twisting the knife, perfecting the art of schadenfreude over many decades.

And, it becomes clear, none of them are entirely reliable witnesses. As each one tells their version of events, revealing contradictory versions of ‘the truth’, we see how feuds are passed down through the generations, how families are estranged or reunited and fortunes made or lost, how strict social expectations can shift and loosen over time (and how some things remain stubbornly unchanged).

Love letter

Mouthing is an acerbic, unsentimental love letter to rural Ireland, where everyone knows everyone else’s business and everyone has an opinion on it - where ‘community’ is both a lifeboat and a life sentence.

The launch was attended by editor, Hermione Thompson (also editor of Booker Prize short listed ‘The Bee Sting’ and Jan Carson, author of ‘The Raptures’, as well as local dignitaries.

Orla Mackey is a writer and teacher based in Kilkenny in Ireland. She studied English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin.

Mouthing is her first novel.

Mouthing was bought by Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin U.K., following a multi-publisher auction.