Breakdown

11.98

One winter morning, in contemporary Dublin, a middle-class woman wakes up next to her husband in her suburban home, and without conscious purpose, walks out the front door to begin a journey that ultimately leads to profound transfiguration. She travels first by car and then train to Rosslare, from where she takes a ferry to Fishguard in Wales. Along the way, she finds herself in service stations, shopping centres, train stations, ferry terminals; recalling her youth, earlier fantasies of suicide and reminiscing about those people who have come in and out of her life. Finally, 48 hours later, alone and isolated in a cottage in Wales, in a strange and eerie landscape, the woman reaches her nadir.

Please note this is an item on backorder. If you have ordered other titles, your entire order will ship when this item comes back into stock. We will notify you before we send it to you.
 

Check the box below to add a card to the basket. Please use ‘Notes’ to indicate occasion and your message

Do you feel this product is perfect for a friend or a loved one? You can buy a gift card for this item! Gift this product
SKU: 9781474618533 Categories: , Tag:

Ships in 24h

Across Ireland

Click & Collect

Free in Wicklow

Easy returns

Within 30 days

Secure checkout

Stripe protected

From the Irish Tatler's Woman of the Year for Literature and one of the AN Post Irish Book Awards's Best New Irish Writers comes a novel about one woman's decision to leave everything behind

'Thrillingly relatable'
Harper's Bazaar

'This funny, thoughtful novel will resonate with lots of women'
Good Housekeeping


Mothers are not supposed to go on road trips . . .

But one winter morning in Dublin, an ordinary woman wakes up in her ordinary home, her husband next to her in bed, her teenage children sleeping nearby. And - without thinking much about it - walks out the front door and never comes back.

So begins a journey which will take her into service stations and shopping centres, hotel bars and hairdressers - and the beds of strange men.

Until finally, forty-eight hours later, alone in a cottage in Wales, the woman faces up to what she has been ignoring inside herself, her family, modern society: signs of breakdown.

 

'You won't be able to put this down. A fascinating study of a woman who has sacrificed her dreams'
The Gloss

'A masterful account of one woman's dramatic rebellion against society's demands'
Daily Express

'A vivid portrait of a woman adrift'

Observer

Additional information

Weight200 g
Dimensions19.6 × 12.8 × 2 cm
Book_author

Sweeney, Cathy

Publisher

WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON

Imprint

Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Cover

Paperback

Pages

218

Language

English

Edition

1st paperback ed

Dewey

823.92 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K