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An unforgettable young woman navigates Dublin, London and New York, striving to build a life raft for her loved ones in the midst of economic and familial collapse.
In this dazzlingly original debut novel, award-winning Irish writer Caoilinn Hughes introduces a heroine of mythic proportions in the form of one Gael Foess. Raised in Dublin by single-minded, careerist parents, Gael observes from a young age how a person's ambitions and ideals can be compromised.
When Gael's financier father walks out during the economic crash of 2008, her family fractures. Her mother, a once-formidable orchestral conductor, becomes a shadow of her former self, and a tragic incident prevents her unwell brother Guthrie from finishing school. Determined not to let her loved ones fall victim to circumstance, Gael leaves Dublin for the leather-lined, coke-dusted social clubs of London, then Manhattan's gallery scene during the throes of the Occupy movement, always working an angle, but slowly becoming a stranger to those who know her. Along the way, she meets the gorgeous Harper and is attracted to her, but also unsure how much she can risk being vulnerable.
Written in electric, heart-stopping prose, ''Orchid & the Wasp'' is a novel about gigantic ambitions and social upheaval, chewing through sexuality, class, and politics, and crackling with joyful, anarchic fury. It challenges bootstraps morality, questioning what we owe one another and what we earn, what makes for a good life, and how events in our lives can turn us into people we never intended to be. A first novel of astonishing talent, ''Orchid & the Wasp'' announces Caoilinn Hughes as one of the most exciting literary writers working today.
Paperback, 341 Pages, Published 2019
Author: Caoilinn Hughes
‘Highly ambitious… Kick-ass, whip-smart and with “a tongue like a catapult”, Gael belongs to a venerable tradition of feisty heroines…readers are going to love her.’ - Sunday Times
‘Fiercely bright and moves like a bullet train.’ - Sebastian Barry, Costa Book of the Year-winning author of ''Days Without End''
‘A remarkable, propulsive debut novel... No precis can adequately convey the novel’s startling, impressionistic prose, nor its corrosive humour. Jewels of observation glitter amid the earthy gags... Exuberant... it zings with energy, ambition and daring.’ - Times Literary Supplement
'Original, clever, and frequently very funny. Hughes's luminescence is staggering, breezing a determined young Gael from Dublin to London to New York and back again with scarcely a breath drawn. Brilliant.' - Irish Independent Best Books of 2018
‘Orchid & the Wasp is a gorgeous novel told in an onrush of wit and ferocity. Art-forging, smack-talking, long-distance-running Gael Foess, three times smarter than everyone around her, proves to be an unforgettable heroine, and her journey will rattle your most basic assumptions about money, ambition, and the nature of love. Caoilinn Hughes is a massive talent.’ - Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ''All the Light We Cannot See''