Hearts and Bones is a book about relationships. It explores what love does to us, and how we survive it.

‘Vivid, memorable and beautifully crafted‘ - Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater
‘A brilliant collection, from a remarkable talent‘ - Joseph O’Connor, author of Shadowplay

Hearts and Bones is Niamh Mulvey's collection of stories about relationships. It explores what love does to us, and how we survive it.

First-time lovers make mistakes; brothers and sisters try to forgive one another; and parents struggle and fail and struggle again. Teenage souls are swayed by euphoric faith in a higher power and then by devotion to desire, trapped between different notions of what might be true. Quiet revolutions happen in living rooms, on river banks, in packed pubs and empty churches, and years later we wonder why we ever did the things we did.

Set between Ireland and London in the first two decades of this millennium, the stories in Hearts and Bones look at the changes that have torn through these times and ask who we are now that we’ve brought the old gods down. Witty, sharply observed and deeply moving, these ten stories announce an extraordinary new Irish literary talent.

'Highly accomplished, inventive' - Irish Times
'Stunning' - Sinéad Gleeson, author Constellations
'Poignant, unsparingly honest' - Sunday Independent

"Astute, surprising and wholly entertaining . . . There is a rich wit at play, Mulvey is an adept practitioner" - Irish Independent

"Highly accomplished, inventive . . . What stands out is Mulvey's command of her own originality . . . Though a debut writer, Mulvey is coming in at a high level with a book that delivers much and promises more" - Irish Times

"Beautifully written . . . a striking, page-turning debut" - Image

"Marvellous . . . A short and sweet debut collection brimming with poised assurance . . . Mulvey is an extremely talented writer" - Business Post

"Gorgeous stories full of humour, insight and readability" - Irish Examiner

"Poignant and lyrical . . . Unsparingly honest in their perspective, these stories invite us to observe the fragility of truth and life." - Sunday Independent