The Wild Laughter

Winner of the 2021 Encore Award

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Pub Date 28 Jul 2020 | Archive Date 1 Jul 2020

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Description

NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED TITLE FOR 2020 BY THE FINANCIAL TIMES, THE IRISH TIMES & RTÉ

'Extraordinary... A book of wicked intelligence and tender heart.' - Max Porter, author of Lanny

It's 2008, and the Celtic Tiger has left devastation in its wake. Brothers Hart and Cormac Doharty are waking up to a very different Ireland – one that widens the chasm between them and brings their beloved father to his knees. Facing a devastating choice that risks their livelihood, if not their lives, their biggest danger comes when there is nothing to lose.

A sharp snapshot of a family and a nation suddenly unmoored, this epic-in-miniature explores cowardice and sacrifice, faith rewarded and abandoned, the stories we tell ourselves and the ones we resist. Hilarious, poignant and utterly fresh, The Wild Laughter cements Caoilinn Hughes' position as one of Ireland's most audacious, nuanced and insightful young writers.
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED TITLE FOR 2020 BY THE FINANCIAL TIMES, THE IRISH TIMES & RTÉ

'Extraordinary... A book of wicked intelligence and tender heart.' - Max Porter, author of Lanny

It's 2008, and...

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781786077806
PRICE US$24.95 (USD)
PAGES 208

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Featured Reviews

I had the absolute pleasure of hearing Caoilinn read a chapter from this beautiful book at The ROSBC Christmas Party and I was immediately captivated. She has a stunning way with words that whisks you away and firmly into whatever story she weaves.
Full rtc closer to publication date.

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I was a huge fan of Caoilinn Hughes’ first novel, The Orchid and the Wasp, last year so was excited to see what she tackled next. Very different subject matter here, but her sublime writing and creation of fully rounded, warts-and-all, memorable characters are undiminished. This is a devastating story of a farming family in crisis, the father over-extending and then losing everything in the financial crash in Ireland, then brought to breaking point through illness and despair. We see two brothers engaged in a life-long duel (an unforgivable simplification, but one is a brash, go-getting type, absenting himself when the going gets tough, the other the dutiful son who hangs in there) and their responses to their parents’ dilemma. A sad, sad story of love, responsibility, and faith tested to the extreme, it is intense and completely immersive for the reader. Fabulous writing, I could quote a brilliant turn of phrase from every page and all of Dolly’s wonderful letters, but a couple of examples that stood out for me:

‘That’s what I saw I the mirror. My impotent, hairless, slackened, orphan self. The mirror was the way of my recalibration. It was wojous as an AA shindig or an AA bra tag on the unpinging.’

‘Just then, Shane tried to slink in rat-like at the back, but all the faces staring doorward made a hedgehog of him.’

A terrific read, I couldn’t recommend it more highly.

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