Kate has taught herself to be careful, to be meticulous. To mark the anniversary of a death in the family, she plans a dinner party - from the fancy table settings to the perfect Baked Alaska waiting in the freezer. Yet by the end of the night, old tensions have flared, the guests have fled, and Kate is spinning out of control. But all we have is ourselves, her father once said, all we have is family. Set between the 1990s and the present day, from a farmhouse in Carlow to Trinity College, Dublin, Dinner Party is a dark, sharply observed debut that thrillingly unravels into family secrets and tragedy. As the past catches up with the present, Kate learns why, despite everything, we can't help returning home.

"Gilmartin writes beautifully" - Sunday Times Culture

"A finely observed Irish debut" - Guardian

"The language is clear and precise, the imagery vivid and imaginative... [an] assured, elegant debut" - Irish Independent

"Dinner Party? is a beautifully observed, dark and twisty novel that thrillingly unravels into family secrets and tragedy" - Grazia

"Exquisitely captured... beautifully paced, confident and insightful" - Daily Mail

"Gilmartin has an incisive instinct for elevating dread in a scene. From the dark humour, Joe Orton-esque theatrical setting of the opening dinner party tableau... Gilmartin displays a deft hold over the gothic flavour of the story, while allowing proper weight to fall on the all-too-human tragedy" - Irish Indepdendent

"[A] brilliant look at family dynamics" - Irish Examiner

"It took more than bravery to produce this fine, nuanced work, it also took immense talent... [Dinner Party] is poised and elegant, painful but often funny, with a refreshing and most welcome hue of redemption" - The Meath Chronicle

"An absorbing and emotionally astute novel about facing down the past and changing the script of our own stories" - Irish Examiner