Soldier Sailor: 'One of the finest novels published this year' The Sunday Times

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There are times when it read a little like a newspaper column told by a hapless individual - a motherhood version of Tim Dowling or Nicholas Lazard - Bridget Jones but with Soldier’s husband playing Daniel and cheating with golf (swapped from her own husband's cycling) and life outside of the house in general, full of highly quotable lines:

Here is Sailor in the playground: “You tottered around like the town drunk and I tottered after you like the town drunk’s mate. Little kids bolted around in all directions, their skulls narrowly missing each other. It was the Hadron Collider in there.” And in his high chair: “You tore off your bib and cast it to the floor like a man quitting his job.” The baby blues are not blue. “They are not any colour. They are the colour draining from the world.” It's not an uplifting book about parenting, but if this interests you, I recommend this raw and jarring read. Eileen M Hunt: Feminism vs Big Brother - Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder; Julia by Sandra Newman Kilroy wants to return to her old rhythm of a novel every three years. Is there a potential trilogy on the stages of childhood? “I don’t think so, I’ve said my bit. I will return to pure imagination now.” She has already started her next novel, which is about a ghost. A relentless narrative that charts the first three years in the relationship between this mother-soldier and this baby-sailor, with raw honesty, the novel gives us a compelling story of a very singular (yet universal) mother getting to grips with her new persona in a turmoil of inner discovery where fact and fiction, objective and subjective realities mix in a believable and jarring mix. The suffering and anger of Soldier (this young woman who is isolated, who definitely is depressed and yet goes on and on) can at times feel not fit for normal reading consumption - too repetitive in certain images and exhausting in the bleakness, but the artistic reasons for that are sound: we are made to enter a similar vicious circle to that of the protagonist from where to get out seems impossible. But progressively and magically she, we, do.

First night reviews

You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side. Speaking directly to her child makes this feel like an intimate love letter, one that also brings to mind a constant inner monologue which certainly related strongly for me. I recall being at home with a baby and spending my days talking directly at them either out loud or in your head! Throughout, there’s a strong focus on double standards and the ways in which the narrator feels crushed by the inequality she experiences as everything in her life changes while her husband’s life continues along as per normal.

Well, Sailor. Here we are once more, you and me in one another’s arms. The Earth rotates beneath us and all is well, for now. . . Become a Faber Member for free and receive curated book recommendations, special competitions and exclusive discounts. So I played for my father another concerto, though he was never one for sitting still in a chair. He would make an exception for me, though, his firstborn. He would see the progress I have made.” Two authors Kilroy cites as influential to her work are John Banville and Vladimir Nabokov. After reading Lolita at age 16, she was inspired to write sentences as vividly as Nabokov. [3] She counts Martin Amis, Andrew O'Hagan, and Michael Frayn among some of her favourite authors, while her favourite Irish novel is John Banville's Athena.

Advance Praise

Author Claire Kilroy captures micro-moments of the struggle that are so real for the new mom but gain little by way of support or sympathy from any quarters but especially close quarters and that lead to resentment, seething resentment, threatening at times to crush the marriage. In fairness these do provide the novel's comedic moments (darkly comedic) and these are most successful in their descriptions of passive aggression: Read about the Faber story, find out about our unique partnerships, and learn more about our publishing heritage, awards and present-day activity. Soldier Sailor is the most uncompromising, provocative novel I’ve read in quite some time. . . As honest as fiction gets.’ JOHN BOYNE Marc writes (main picture): I specifically focused on the South Africa captain Siya Kolisi, far left, as he sung the national anthem, Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, as he sings with so much passion and emotion. Claire Kilroy at the launch of her previous novel, The Devil I Know, with the books editor Angus Cargill from Faber & Faber at the Gutter Bookshop in Temple Bar, Dublin in August 2012, soon before the birth of her son. Photograph: Alan Betson