Published in 2020
256 pages
Susannah Dickey is a novelist and poet from Derry in Northern Ireland. Dickey received an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors in 2020. Her first novel, Tennis Lessons, was published in 2020. Her second novel, Common Decency, followed in 2022, and was reviewed in The Times, the Irish Times, and The Guardian. She has published several poetry pamphlets, including I had some very slight concerns (2017), Genuine human values (2018), Bloodthirsty for Marriage (2020) and Oh! (2022).
What is this book about?
You’re strange and wrong. You’ve known it from the beginning.
This is the voice that rings in your ears. Because you never say the right thing. You’re a disappointment to everyone. You’re a far cry from beautiful – and your thoughts are ugly too.
You seem bound to fail, bound to break.
But you know what it is to laugh with your best friend, to feel the first tentative tingles of attraction, to take exquisite pleasure in the affront of your unruly body.
You just need to find your place.
From dead pets and crashed cars to family traumas and misguided love affairs, Susannah Dickey’s revitalizing debut novel plunges us into the private world of one young woman as she navigates her rocky way to adulthood.
