Rituals

“Poignant, funny and humane, Rituals is a story of hope for these neurotic times. Danielle McLaughlin probes the dark corners of the mind with great originality and compassion. I loved it.” Sarah Gilmartin

Joan, a public servant in her fifties, is in the habit of living alone. Or rather, she’s in the habit of living with the many rituals and routines - some ordinary, some less so - that allow her to navigate her days.
It’s a system that works very well for Joan… until it doesn’t.

An unexpected career break prompts her to take in a lodger, a young man studying English Literature at the university. Together they must learn to negotiate everything from a shared bathroom to the hazards of global warming.

Set in Cork city, Rituals takes us inside an obsessive mind and invites us to reflect upon the power and beauty contained within our daily lives, but also the dark grip of compulsion. By turns tender, funny and poignant, it celebrates the bravery involved in opening our hearts to change and to chance.

“Rituals is a superb achievement, a story simultaneously shadowed by obsession and illuminated by wit and acute observation.” Neil Hegarty

“In Rituals, Danielle McLaughlin uses a small viewfinder to reveal a delicate and tender story. Her characters are good people, fighting to retain their humanity in a complicated and sometimes cruel world. I savoured every page.” Kathleen MacMahon

“Danielle McLaughlin remains one of the best writers in Ireland. Rituals is warm, funny, full of humanity and peppered with devastating insight. I could spend another six hundred pages with these characters. You’re going to fall in love with this book.” Jan Carson