Книга Scenes of a Graphic Nature: 'A perfect page-turner . . . I loved it' - Dolly Alderton
'A dark yet joyous novel about family and friendship' Grazia
Charlie's life isn't going forward - so she's decided to go back
After a tough few years floundering around the British film industry and experimenting with amateur pornography, Charlie and her best friend Laura take a trip to her familial home on an island off the west coast of Ireland. Her father's health is rapidly declining and this could be the last chance to connect with her roots. But events on the island cause Charlie to doubt her father's childhood stories - and then there's her complicated relationship with Laura. Pursuing the truth will shatter everything she thought knew - but is that what it takes to grow up?
'Wonderful! Had me gripped' Marian Keyes
'A razor-sharp writer' Red
'O'Donoghue is impressive on the complexities of being a young woman and calls to mind the likes of Nora Ephron' Independent
*The Rachel Incident was a #2 bestseller in Ireland in June 2023
"A dark yet joyous novel about family and friendship" - Grazia
"The brilliant O'Donoghue's second novel is a moving and extremely funny look at family, roots and the myth of Irishness" - i paper
"It might be the best novel of 2020" - You Magazine, Irish Mail on Sunday
"Witty, tender and insightful . . . O'Donoghue is a perceptive, clever writer" - Guardian
"A gorgeous exploration of the messy and fragile nature of friendship and all the many forms of love, as well as of the primal need we all have to belong" - Irish Times
"A darkly humorous, keenly observed blend of millennial drift and murder mystery from a razor-sharp writer" - Red
"Absolutely loved it. It's an absorbing blend of quarter-life crisis mixed with a bit of mystery" - Irish Tatler
"In the inventive O'Donoghue's follow-up to Promising Young Women, she turns her tart tongue on friendship, exile and what it feels like to return to a place that no longer feels like home" - i paper
"The dark humour will have you guffawing into the pages" - Cosmopolitan
"Highly enjoyable: full of momentum and heart. O'Donoghue is a formidable talent" - Sunday Business Post
"[An] edgy and astute second novel . . . Caroline O'Donoghue is a master of the Technicolor character, fleshing out even the minor ones with brightness and wit . . . As ever, O'Donoghue is impressive on the complexities of being a young woman and delivers this insight with lively dialogue and a droll acuity that occasionally calls to mind the likes of Nora Ephron . . . O'Donoghue possesses an edginess and a wry sensibility that, despite the book's dark subject matter, ultimately translates into something zesty and companionable. Her easy curiosity about love, lust, loss and losing one's way will doubtless leave readers wanting more" - Independent
"At the heart of Caroline O'Donoghue's addictive second novel lies a simple and compelling question: can you ever outrun your past? . . . acute, clever and very funny" - i paper
"Examines self-mythology and long-repressed secrets" - Stylist
"A witty story of second-generation immigrants trying to belong, Scenes of a Graphic Nature grapples with love, friendship and identity" - Heat
"Scenes of a Graphic Nature could have been a simpler novel. But, in its refusal to follow the expected trajectory of a prodigal return, it offers us intricate, layered humanity. Charlie Regan, in all her messy glory, is a protagonist we are willing to follow, from England to Ireland, from the past to present, and everything in between this world and the next" - Lunate
"Everything in Caroline O'Donoghue's new novel is messy - but in the best way. She covers important themes like family, friendship, nationality, history and health, weaving her narrator Charlie's sense of dislocation into a broader exploration of cultural identity . . . an intriguing read, raising questions about what stories should be told, when, and by whom " - Scotsman