Saturday / Dé Sathairn
Féile showcases Tramp Press.
‘People who love books will always want excellent writing.’ TRAMP PRESS
Tramp Press has nurtured exceptional literary talent since it was first set up in 2014 and Maggie Armstrong’s debut is exceptional.
‘Old Romantics is somehow both elegant and fiery. An excellent debut.’ NICOLE FLATTERY
‘As for the prose, you could bathe in it. The details, the clever turns of phrase. A ticking clock is “strict, censorious, like a clacking tongue”. A heart bangs “like a broken toy”.’ – NIAMH DONNELLY, IRISH TIMES
‘The collection builds to four final stories with power, insight and compassion for human frailty’ – MARTINA DEVLIN, IRISH INDEPENDENT
A few years ago my husband recommended me for a job in his company. I thought it would be fun, and so a woman named Rosaleen would ring me for a chat. Rosaleen was a senior director in the firm, and these were scheduled chats, but I was always unprepared, running from a room, looking for a pen, or out in the rain, pushing the baby in the pram. Rosaleen had a terse and serious manner that unwound into listless expectation when my turn came to speak. I would say something and she would wait for me to say something better. Rosaleen savoured a pause. The line burned with a shared misgiving even as she made me an astounding offer.
A woman pursues a man who cut ahead of her in a line. Two nice people report that a child is being left unsupervised at a local beach. Romances, old and new, shift and sour.
Cnuasach siamsúil gearrscéalta atá in Old Romantics ó pheann Maggie Armstrong. Unreliable, deceptive and flawed, Maggie Armstrong’s narrators navigate a world of devious attraction and latent hostility from first love through to motherhood.
‘A feast of edgy, vivid, compelling writing from a storyteller of unique voice and rare skills.’ JOSEPH O’CONNOR
‘Funny and awkward and honest and perceptive and shrewd … a very exciting new voice in Irish fiction.’ LOUISE O’NEILL
‘I need to read everything this woman ever writes.’ CATHY SWEENEY
MAGGIE ARMSTRONG’s work has appeared in the Dublin Review, The Stinging Fly, Banshee, and elsewhere. The author was longlisted for a 2023 Irish Book Award. She lives in Dublin.
