There's Been a Little Incident

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Exploring big issues like alcoholism, mental health and grief, Alice handles these superbly. Beautifully written, this debut will be a big hit with both Irish and international readers. Humorous and heart-warming, There’s Been A Little Incident is a compelling read. I can’t wait to see what Alice writes next! A witty and warm debut novel from a young Irish writer. A story of family, grief, and the ways we come together when all seems lost. To what extent her unhappiness stems from a sense of estrangement from her family in Ireland after she moves to London, from her best friend’s increasing unavailability after he couples up, or from suppressed grief at the premature deaths of her parents, is gradually worked out over the course of an eventful narrative that veers from the exceptionally poignant to the wildly comic. With strong Marian Keyes vibes, this book takes us through the vagaries of a family and all the little idiosyncrasies they have.

B looked out across the pitch. It was such a peaceful sight that from this vantage point it’d almost be enough to make you take up rugby. There was a pause in the music so his laugh at the prospect was louder than he expected. Into the brief silence, the first few notes of ‘Dancing Queen’ rang out. He knew immediately what Molly had done. Dread filled him even before he heard the DJ call his name.Ryan’s cast of characters is a crazy family, made up of “new-aged hippies, religious nuts, alcoholics, former shoe salesmen, delinquent youths and Sudoku enthusiasts” who manage to endear themselves to the reader. Are they “nosy, judgemental and eccentric but ultimately great”? or “suffocating, overbearing people who pigeon-holed you”? Either way, quite a few of them are dealing with grief. And doing it the best way they can. Former model Lady V presumes Molly’s just off taking drugs and sleeping with strangers – which is fine by her. Cousin Anne, tired of living in Molly’s shadow, is keeping quiet, and cousin Bobby is distracted by his own issues.

This really is a big cast, and the first couple of chapters are a struggle getting everyone straight in your head and what part they play in the family. I understand there’s to be a family tree in the actual book, it certainly needs it! In There’s Been a Little Incident, the debut novel by Irish writer Alice Ryan, the “incident” in question is the disappearance of Molly, a young woman with a history of going missing. As Molly is an only child whose parents had died by the time she was 18, it falls to an extended cast of friends and relatives to get on the case. It becomes clear from early on, however, that this is not going to be a grim missing-person novel, but rather an extended exploration of the binding force of shared grief and personal history. It is about those who are there for you, even when you are not there yourself.Molly, it seems, has made a habit of disappearing ever since her parents died, but she is now nearly 30 years old and, as her aunt, ‘Lady V’, sees it, it ‘wasn’t normal for an entire family to lose their minds’ because she has gone away ‘for a few days’, even if she did leave a note saying that this time ‘it was for good’. Former model Lady V presumes Molly's just off taking drugs and sleeping with strangers – which is fine by her. Cousin Anne, tired of living in Molly's shadow, is keeping quiet, and cousin Bobby is distracted by his own issues.

One of the aspects of family life that Ryan wanted to explore was what happens when it doesn’t quite go right: “The question for me was, at what point does the individual become the communal? And at what point do you raise your issue? And I think, certainly in Ireland, and in many countries, you don’t feel allowed. You don’t say, hang on everybody, I have this big problem. And you can let it get too far.” A lot of characters. It took a while to get to know them all, with such a vast array of personalities. However, despite the large number of characters, Alice Ryan did a great job at making it clear whose POV you were reading and even included a (funny) family tree at the beginning. Warm, wry and genuinely funny. Alice Ryan has a great ability to describe the nuances of people.' Marian Keyes Instead, she recalls a mother who would come through the door every evening and be utterly delighted by the domestic tableau that awaited her, much of it organised by her husband. “She honestly thought it was miraculous, every evening, we were well fed, and her favourite thing in the world were her chores in the house.”I loved the mix of characters. They all brought something special to the table and could easily have had their individual stories made into their own books.