‘Flayingly authentic and sensationally compelling … one of the best books of the year.’ The Observer

‘A book that few authors would have the courage to write, nor the skill to write so well.’ Irish Independent

‘Are you going into town today?’ she says, which annoys me because it’s something she says all the time, having forgotten she said it before, and I say, ‘Jesus, Mum, not this again,’ and she says, ‘What again?’ and I say, ‘Town is shut down,’ and while she can see I am upset and wants not to upset me like this, she is also wounded by my tone, and I am ashamed then and can only look at my plate, and I decide not to bring up what I intended to bring up, about the past, and about my need for her to apologise for it.

Gavin is spending the quarantine in a small flat in south Dublin with his eighty-year-old mother, whose mind is slowly slipping away. He has lived most of his adult life abroad and has returned home to care for her and to write a novel. But he finds that all he can write about is her.

Moving through a sequence of remembered rooms — the ‘cells’ — Gavin unspools an intimate story of his upbringing and early adulthood: feeling out of place in the insular suburb in which he grew up, the homophobic bullying he suffered at school, his brother’s mental illness and drug addiction, his father’s sudden death, his own devastating diagnosis, his struggles and triumphs as a writer, and above all, always, his relationship with his mother. Her brightness shines a light over his childhood, but her betrayal of his teenage self leads to years of resentment and disconnection. Now, he must find a way to reconcile with her, before it is too late.

Written with unusual frankness and urgency, Cells is at once an uncovering of filial love and its limits, and a coming to terms with separation and loss.

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‘Flayingly authentic and sensationally compelling … one of the best books of the year.’

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‘Cells is a raw, throbbing thing; the literary equivalent of an open wound, but one that’s been cauterised by a highly skilled surgeon … one of the very best, most authentic, beautiful, and brutal depictions of a deep and abiding, albeit imperfect love between a son and his mother, not to mention the story of the making of an acutely talented writer.’

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‘Raw and deeply affecting.’

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‘Fantastic.’

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‘McCrea’s emotionally intelligent dissection of personal relationships ensures that this is no squalid misery memoir.’

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‘A book that few authors would have the courage to write, nor the skill to write so well.’

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‘Already established as a leading voice in Irish literature as a novelist, Gavin McCrea’s first foray into memoir, Cells, allows him to pour his literary prowess into a heart stopping excavation of the self … An antidote to shame that this country sorely desires, Cells will heighten the capacity for empathy in all who read it. Not least of all, empathy for the self.’

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‘In its ungarnished prose and loud inner voice, Cells stitches raw memories with new meanings to craft a brilliant composite of a son’s unexamined relationship with his mother. The memoir pairs McCrea’s unspoken shame with his private sanctums to show how it’s these cells – physical or fantastical – where we sometimes finally find the words to speak.’

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‘While a deeply personal book, Cells represents an important comment on modern Ireland.’

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‘McCrea lays himself bare.’

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‘A riveting, deeply considered memoir … as with the best memoirs (Nuala O’Faolain’s Are You Somebody? is one touchstone) McCrea uses his own life as a springboard to discuss wider Irish society … From the wonderful prologue that will instantly hook readers, to the many surprising twists introduced without fanfare throughout the book, Cells is an excavation of the past by a writer who knows exactly what he’s doing.’

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‘McCrea is one of Ireland’s best contemporary authors.’

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‘Raw, courageous, and heartfelt … a brutal, tender book, and one which merits reading with all the same attention and care with which it is written.’

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‘He writes beautifully.’

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‘A visceral and searching memoir where the author displays seemingly inexhaustible strength in revealing his vulnerability.’

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‘[Q]uite fearlessly, McCrae lays it all bare … [Cells is] brave; brilliantly written; almost unbearably raw and frank; but also tender and sweet.’

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‘A harrowing but ultimately very rewarding read.’

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Praise for The Sisters Mao:

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Praise for The Sisters Mao:

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Praise for Mrs Engels: