Recent debut fiction has featured plenty of offbeat, dysfunctional heroines. It’s as if the publishing world, and by extension readers, can’t get enough. First novels of this ilk have made household names of authors around the world – Ottessa Moshfegh, Sayaka Murata (in her English-language debut), Jade Sharma, Sally Rooney and Anakana Schofield to name a few.
In Ireland this year alone commendable debuts from Michelle Gallen, Susannah Dickey, Naoise Dolan and Niamh Campbell have all featured stories of young women who have complex and often troubling emotional worlds. Where are the women who have their shit together, one wonders? Perhaps they’re currently being written into being.
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