“ What I understand as the human impulse for the divine, I equate that with the human impulse for consciousness. It sounds like I have things solved, but I don’t. I’m just plunging away in the darkness .” Mary Costello
In 1985 Dublin, nineteen-year-old Anna Hughes is in thrall to Peter Gallagher, an older, worldly man. Introverted naïve Anna is captivated by Peter’s experience, wide circle of friends and thirst for adventure. Her obsessive longing for him leads to marriage and, eventually, a crushing betrayal. Over the course of more than two decades, Anna’s journey gives an intimate portrait of a woman embracing herself as she is, claiming the life she yearns for.
Mary Costello’s short story collection, The China Factory , was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award and shortlisted for an Irish Book Award. Her debut, Academy Street won the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year Award and was named overall Irish Book of the Year 2014. It was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, the Costa First Novel Prize, and the EU Prize for Literature among others. Her second novel, The River Capture was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards, The Dalkey Novel Prize and the Kerry Novel of the Year Prize.
In conversation with Sinéad Gleeson.