We Are Not in the World

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

'Haunting, mesmerising, and so deeply intelligent about the interwoven strengths and frailties of the human heart.' Kamila Shamsie

Heartbroken after a long, painful love affair, a man takes a job driving a haulage lorry through France. Travelling with him is a secret passenger - his daughter. Twenty-something, unkempt, off the rails.

With a week on the road together, man and girl must attempt to restore themselves and each other, and to repair a relationship that is at once fiercely loving and deeply scarred.

As the pair journey down the motorways and through the service stations of France, a devastating picture reveals itself: a story of grief, of shame, and of love in all its complex, dark and glorious manifestations.

PRAISE FOR WE ARE NOT IN THE WORLD:
'Wonderful, wrenching . . . full of enormous feelings very precisely rendered' Sara Baume
'A whirlpool of memories, regrets and hopes' Tim Pears
'An uncanny ability to turn the seemingly insignificant into something monumental' Jan Carson
'Unusual, utterly original and mysterious . . . definitely a 2020 must read' Elaine Feeney

© Conor O'Callaghan 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Critics Review

  • Haunting, mesmerising, and so deeply intelligent about the interwoven strengths and frailties of the human heart.

    Kamila Shamsie

  • ‘Memorably disturbing…stylish, deft…very much of the moment…brilliant. Beckett on wheels.’

    Guardian

  • Powerful . . . compelling and profoundly moving...establishes O’Callaghan as one of the most talented contemporary Irish writers.

    Irish Times

  • Lit up with moments of unexpected beauty and humour…heartbreaking, sweetly logical, tentatively hopeful.

    The Spectator

  • Wonderful, wrenching … full of enormous feelings very precisely rendered.

    Sara Baume

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