Following the death of her best friend, Erin has to get out of London. Returning home to Belfast, an au pair job provides some refuge from her grief and her relentless mother. She spends her spare daytime sitting in quiet churches and her free nights at the bar where her childhood friend Declan works.

Erin is grateful for the distraction offered by, first, a good-looking American academic, and then the reappearance in her life of an old flame. They offer delightful diversions. But Erin must eventually confront herself.

"It's also a novel about trauma and its aftermath: again, a common theme today, but done sophisticatedly here, with a quality of thinking rare in a debut . . . Connolly gives Erin a dry, wry voice, and one that's frequently very funny . . . Lazy City exhibits an understanding of the importance of our homeland as the container that shapes us . . . I felt better after reading this book. Connolly is a writer in whom I have faith" - * Daily Telegraph *

"A compelling exploration of grief, uncertainty and disappointment, and a convincing portrait of Belfast's normalisation, such as it is. Indeed, where a Troubles novel might have foregrounded trauma, Connolly focuses instead on the impact of more ordinary, but still devastating, loss" - * Irish Independent *

"A skilful, expressive and subtly subversive debut" - * Irish Times *

"A timely coming-of-age novel" - * Daily Mail *