Mouthing

Terrifically sharp-witted and deeply moving, Orla Mackey's novel crackles with intelligence and life. Reading these pages I had the feeling, time and again, of stepping into a moving current

Chetna Maroo, author of 'Western Lane'

Intimate and panoramic, a raucous gathering of voices: full of humour, pierced with longing, caught between connection and claustrophobia. Compassionate but clear-eyed, angry and elegiac, Mouthing is a portrait of our confused and often destructive yearning for grace

Colin Walsh, author of 'Kala'

A wonderful novel full of memorable characters and charming voices. I was absorbed, amused and moved by Orla Mackey's masterful depiction of so-called ordinary life in all its richness and complexity

Ben Hinshaw, author of 'Exactly What You Mean'

Mouthing is full of disgrace, inherited trauma and family secrets that spill all over the back roads of Ossory. A book of testimonies and intertwined destinies that will make you laugh, because if you didn't you'd surely cry

Aingeala Flannery, author of 'The Amusements'

A hugely accomplished, sophisticated debut, wildly original and distinct: a startling chorus of vivid, hungry characters battling for love, status and meaning in a small Irish town where not much of anything is to be found. Mackey’s characters possess a devastating, squint-eyed wit but also a capacity for moments of great, unexpected tenderness. No one is ever as alone as they might think. I cannot wait to read what Orla Mackey does next!

Lauren Mackenzie, author of 'The Couples'

Orla Mackey writes with tenderness, honesty and caustic wit. Mouthing is full of characters who'll simultaneously make your blood boil and break your heart into little bits. A novel for everyone who's ever wondered what the neighbours are really up to behind closed doors . . .

Jan Carson, author of 'The Raptures'

A bittersweet love letter to small-town Irish life over several generations, a polyvocal mosaic in the vein of Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge

Irish Times, ‘Everything Books in 2024’

A hotbed of gossip and intrigue, the novel is narrated in a dark, humorous and confessional style by several generations of villagers, from the mid-20th century to the early 21st . . . Anyone with experience of a small town will be drawn to this

Journal.ie

Sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued, a biting, unsentimental love letter to rural Irish life

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Engrossing, acerbic and brilliant. Everyone here has a tale to tell... There is a pub and there is a priest. There are secrets and lies. It is by turns funny, horrifying, and all too real... Mackey’s structure requires the reader to constantly reassess their opinions of the characters. It is a fascinating magic trick, shimmering with fractal richness... Again and again we meet a character, form an opinion, and almost immediately have that wittily torpedoed

The Irish Times

All human life is here . . . Mackey’s book is told in the richly descriptive language of the local people, and calls to mind writers like Donal Ryan and Anne Griffin

Irish Times, 'Arts & Ideas'

Orla Mackey’s much-anticipated debut novel, a chorus of voices staking their claim for the truth of their times and what goes on in the rural outpost of Ballyrowan from the 1960s to the Noughties

RTÉ Guide

A compelling and highly entertaining read; it is a brilliant debut . . . The more people you get to know, the more compelling the novel becomes . . . The interlinked stories are like an addictive soap opera, and you never want them to end . . . Mackey observes the small community with affection and writes about them with real insight and a finely honed wit

Irish Examiner

A startling debut . . . The world Mackey pitches her readers into is hilarious, heartbreaking and oh-so-familiar to anyone who grew up in a small community. No character is straightforward here and each voices their story in a unique and compelling way

Irish Times, 'The best books of 2024 so far'