LAUNCH | A Thought Without Collision by Adrian Duncan, in conversation with Cathy Sweeney

We are thrilled to be launching Adrian Duncan’s new novel, A Thought without Collision . In a characteristically philosophical and innovative novel, Duncan traces mathematical relationships alongside the human ones, through two intertwining timelines. Duncan will be in conversation with Cathy Sweeney, author of Breakdown , to celebrate the release. All are welcome to attend what promises to be a fascinating conversation. Refreshments will be served.

Attendance is free but booking is essential.

PRAISE FOR A THOUGHT WITHOUT COLLISION

“Adrian Duncan’s account of a mathematical prodigy and the characters who shape her life is for me his best work yet. The dual timelines build into a compelling enquiry into how we perceive and affect the world that we pass through. It’s very moving, very funny, and it will make your brain dance.” - Jo Lloyd

“I was so impressed and moved by this novel. A Thought Without Collision manages to seamlessly intersperse fascinating passages of mathematical philosophy with encounters of profound human tenderness, asking questions of what, exactly, it is that makes us human: the messy, tearaway nature of our thoughts? Our yearning for sense-making? Or the uncontrollable and yet transformative points of connection between us? With formal innovation and elegant, blistering prose, Duncan offers a different model of novelistic causality, with characters that feel alive in their vivid and quiet complexity.”- Susannah Dickey

“The book is an elegant rarity in contemporary fiction: a novel in which form, voice, style and story are inseparable from each other.”- Cathy Sweeney

ABOUT

ADRIAN DUNCAN is an Irish artist and writer. He has published four novels, a collection of short stories and a book of non-fiction titled Little Republics: The Story of Bungalow Bliss . His novels and his short-story collection have been selected for several book prizes. His fiction is published by Tuskar Rock Press (Profile Books) and his next novel A Thought without Collision will appear in August 2026. His third novel, The Geometer Lobachevsky , will be published in French in September 2026. Duncan’s film works have screened in competition and in official selections at CPH:DOX, IFFR, Karlovy Vary, HotDocs, Biografilm, IDFA, RiDM, Dokufest, among others. His most recent film, the award-winning, Latina, Latina (84mins, 2025) was funded by the Arts Council’s Reel Art Award. From 1995 Duncan studied and worked as a structural engineer for over a decade in the UK and Ireland. He received his chartership from the IEI (Irish Engineering Institute) in 2007, before returning to study fine art and visual culture at IADT, Dún Laoghaire and NCAD, Dublin. He is a contributing editor at Paper Visual Art Journal and PVA Books (IRL/DE).

CATHY SWEENEY is a writer living in Dublin. Her short fiction has been published in The Stinging Fly, The Dublin Review, Egress, Winter Papers, Banshee, The Tangerine and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her debut short story collection Modern Times is published by The Stinging Fly and Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Her debut novel Breakdown was published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson in 2024 and quickly became an Irish Bestseller.