The author of the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction-longlisted Nothing But Blue Sky on loving Dickens, troubles with Woolf, and the happy task of putting together IKEA furniture.
The author of the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction-longlisted Nothing But Blue Sky on loving Dickens, troubles with Woolf, and the happy task of putting together IKEA furniture.
Across her three novels, Kathleen MacMahon has established a reputation for tender, moving portrayals of human beings: our rough-looking but often delicate edges; the gentle tragedies and small victories that make up daily life.
Nothing But Blue Sky is no different. The Irish writer’s third novel follows David as he processes 20 years of his ‘perfect’ marriage following the death of his wife. As he delves deeper, uncovering the nuances that suggest it wasn’t quite what he thought it was, he begins to questions how well we can know others – and how well we can know ourselves.
The stirring portrait of marriage has earned Nothing but Blue Sky a place on the longlist for the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction. In honour of the achievement, we got in touch with MacMahon to ask her our recurring 21 questions; in response, she told us about her love of Gabriel García Márquez, her “many projects of dubious quality” and the superpower that would have helped her through lockdown.
Dickens, for the storytelling, the sentiment and the unforgettable characters.
A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. What a story.
My grandmother had a complete set of The Whiteoaks of Jalna, by Mazo de la Roche. It was passed down to my mother and then to me. I’ve had a passion for multi-generational family sagas ever since. There’s a special magic to books that have a family tree at the start.
Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez. I went to Colombia when I was 25 on foot of my love for that book. It was very uncool of me – I was like an American coming to Dublin with a copy of Ulysses.
I once worked as a hostess at a French restaurant in San Francisco. My job was to dress up like a French girl and lure in passing businessmen. I’d like to say that I quit but the truth is that I was fired.
“Don’t be afraid to move people,” by my agent Marianne Gunn O’Connor.
Nancy Mitford’s Love in a Cold Climate, for pure pleasure.
To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf. It’s not like I haven’t tried.
Frustrated.
Any kind of craft project, including but not limited to gardening, painting, sticking things into scrapbooks, using the sewing machine, assembling IKEA furniture… I am never happier than when I’m embarked on one of my many projects of dubious quality.
Julio Iglesias, for reasons only I seem to understand.
Settled into the seat of a plane or train with my notebook on my lap. The motion always brings a flood of ideas. Most of them end up on the cutting room floor, but the energy off them is wonderful.
An interview with Harold Pinter when I was a young reporter. He thought I was an idiot, and he wasn’t wrong, but he was very rude. Neither of us came out of it well.
My grandmother, Mary Lavin. I’ve only come to read her work properly since she died, and there are a million questions I’d like to ask her. We’d have beef stew and spuds with a barrel load of red wine, followed by Hadji Bey Turkish Delight. That was standard fare in her house.
Wasting time.
The ability to withstand cold water. Especially now, with all the travel restrictions, it’s incredibly frustrating not to be able to swim any distance in the sea.
Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet. I think it’s a masterpiece.
Yes, in theory, no in practice.
Tea. It may be my one life essential.
I couldn’t possibly make a call on the best book. The book I most enjoyed was Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry.
A quote I once heard that stayed with me: “We live life forwards, we learn it backwards.”
Nothing But Blue Sky by Kathleen MacMahon is out in paperback in April..