An extraordinary and urgent debut by a prize-winning Irish writer, NESTING introduces an unforgettable new voice in fiction.
On a bright spring afternoon in Dublin, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change everything. Grabbing an armful of clothes from the washing line, Ciara straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe.
This was meant to be an escape. But with dwindling savings, no job, and her family across the sea, Ciara finds herself adrift, facing a broken housing system and the voice of her own demons. As summer passes and winter closes in, she must navigate raising her children in a hotel room, searching for a new home and dealing with her husband Ryan's relentless campaign to get her to come back. Because leaving is one thing, but staying away is another.
What will it take for Ciara to rebuild her life? Can she ever truly break away from Ryan's control - and what will be the cost?
Tense, beautiful, and underpinned by an unassailable love, hope and resilience, this is the story of one woman's bid to start over.
A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AN INSTANT IRISH TIMES NUMBER 2 BESTSELLER A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST OF 2025
'Tense, forensically realistic and compulsively readable. A real achievement'SUNDAY TIMES
'Here is a novelist who has powerful news to tell, and an impressive range of narrative gifts with which to tell it' IRISH TIMES
'Should become essential reading for all. Nesting? is anovel that truly matters' SUNDAY INDEPENDENT
'A moving portrait of life inside the housing system and the courage it takes to try to build a home in society's cracks'? GUARDIAN
'Brand-new, urgent and hugely satisfying' RODDY DOYLE
'As emotionally charged as it is brutally real. The writing is flawless. I was profoundly moved' ELAINE FEENEY
'Will make your blood boil and your heart soar. This is an important novel' CLAIRE KILROY
'Gorgeous, maddening, thrilling and compassionate' SHEILA ARMSTRONG
Author
About Roisín O'Donnell
Roisìn O'Donnell is an award-winning Irish author. She won the prize for Short Story of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards in 2018, and was shortlisted for the same prize in 2022. She is the author of the story collection Wild Quiet, which was longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and shortlisted for the Kate O'Brien Award. Her short fiction has featured in The Stinging Fly, The Tangerine, the Irish Times and many other places. Other stories have been selected for major anthologies such as The Long Gaze Back, and have featured on RTÉ Radio. Nesting is her first novel. She lives near Dublin with her two children.
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