As You Were

WINNER OF THE KATE O'BRIEN AWARD 2021
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE 2021
SHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2020
AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT 2020

'Riveting... I was exhilarated reading this' Roddy Doyle

Sinéad Hynes is a tough, driven, funny young property developer with a terrifying secret.

No-one knows it: not her fellow patients in a failing hospital, and certainly not her family. She has confided only in Google and a shiny magpie.

But she can't go on like this, tirelessly trying to outstrip her past and in mortal fear of her future. Across the ward, Margaret Rose is running her chaotic family from her rose-gold Nokia. In the neighbouring bed, Jane, rarely but piercingly lucid, is searching for a decent bra and for someone to listen. Sinéad needs them both.

As You Were is about intimate histories, institutional failures, the kindness of strangers, and the darkly present past of modern Ireland. It is about women's stories and women's struggles. It is about seizing the moment to be free.

Wildly funny, desperately tragic, inventive and irrepressible, As You Were introduces a brilliant voice in Irish fiction with a book that is absolutely of our times.

'Amazing... Brimful of brilliant characters - I LOVED IT!' Marian Keyes

'The diaologue just crackles, the characters are so alive and real, there's tragedy here, there's comedy, there's everything' Donal Ryan

'An absolutely fabulous book' Kevin Barry

'An absolute tour de force: raw, sharp and wild' Lisa McInerney

'A superb, unforgettable debut' Sinéad Gleeson

'Funny and charming as well as dark and strong' Sarah Moss

'Funny, visceral, so well observed... I was blown away' Douglas Stuart

**AN EVENING STANDARD, OBSERVER AND DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020**