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Reading lists

Books that feel like a warm hug

Before My Actual Heart Breaks

An incredible debut exploring loneliness, grief and the long-lasting repercussions of trauma set against the backdrop of the Northern Irish Troubles.

This is in many ways a familiar story but it is told in such a fresh, entertaining, funny and moving way, it felt like I was reading something brand new.

Two pages into this book you know you've unlocked something special . . . the book is brightened up plenty by sunshine characters and the magnificence of Tyrone nature . . . Tish knows what she's talking about.

A really lovely book. I loved reading it.

Delaney's writing is a beautiful wave flowing lyrically through the life of Mary Rattigan. A touching tale of how one woman survives a tough beginning to eventually end up exactly where her heart belongs.

I did not expect this debut to turn into the most exquisite love story, but it did, and I was besotted.

Mary is an eloquent narrator, conveying her and her husband's pain with exquisite and moving precision. The loneliness, grief and long-lasting repercussions of trauma are achingly real. The graphically described Troubles provide a powerful backdrop to this arresting and moving novel.

Gorgeous prose . . . my heart broke several times . . . Mary's voice is so raw.

This hard-hitting book sets one woman's struggle with the hand dealt to her against the backdrop of the Northern Irish Troubles. This powerful debut examines the bonds of hate - and love - in a story of one family.

Tish Delaney's writing is engaging and she has a strong eye for character and dialogue . . . Mary's story of finding love in the most unlikely of circumstances will draw readers in and you'd need a heart of stone not to be moved by the ending.

[T]here is much to admire about this debut, from the energetic voice to the way the Troubles are knitted through the timeline.

Fresh, raw and frequently funny. Her descriptions of the landscape are elegiac, and her ear for dialogue is flawless. Her exploration of loneliness, regret, and the deep repurcussions of trauma is exquisite. Above all, she writes poignantly of the human condition, creating an eloquent narrator who will live long in the reader's memory

WINNER OF THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 
__________________________________________________ 
'Fresh, entertaining, funny and moving' RODDY DOYLE 
 
'A touching tale of how one woman survives a tough beginning to eventually end up exactly where her heart belongs' ANNE GRIFFIN, author of When All is Said 
__________________________________________________ 
'If I could go back to being sixteen again, I'd do things differently.' 
'Everyone over the age of forty feels like that, you total gom,' says my best friend Lizzie Magee. 
 
When she was young Mary Rattigan wanted to fly. She was going to take off like an angel from heaven and leave the muck and madness of troubled Northern Ireland behind. Nothing but the Land of Happy Ever After would do for her. 
 
But as a Catholic girl with a B.I.T.C.H. for a Mammy and a silent Daddy, things did not go as she and Lizzie Magee had planned. 
 
Now, five children, twenty-five years, an end to the bombs and bullets, enough whiskey to sink a ship and endless wakes and sandwich teas later, Mary's alone. She's learned plenty of hard lessons and missed a hundred steps towards the life she'd always hoped for. 
 
 Will she finally find the courage to ask for the love she deserves? Or is it too late?

Tish Delaney

Tish Delaney's first novel, Before My Actual Heart Breaks, suggested that she was an author of rare promise and acuity. This follow-up confirms her as one of the most arresting voices of her generation. The tale of an aunt and niece living in uncomfortable proximity and mutual antagonism with each other in rural Donegal, it combines deep psychological insight with unexpected touches of lightness and humour. Delaney never succumbs to cliche, but creates a vividly realised narrative in which you long for her characters to break free and triumph

Reading The Saint of Lost Things was one of those perfect reading experiences that come along very occasionally; it's moving, funny, tragic, triumphant, totally gripping, a pure gift of a novel

Superb. An assured second novel. The destructive impulses driving Delaney's characters reap a bitter harvest. Delaney has a long and fruitful career ahead of her

Delaney has an effortless skill to unlock the fabric and nuances of working-class family life. Thoroughly absorbing, it didn't let me down

You'll be moved, you might laugh and there may well be redemption

Striking. In creating a protagonist who is steely against the odds, Delaney shows deftly that our dreams need never abandon us

Novel never loses its humanity in portrayal of a troubled life: authentic and complex [...] elegantly paced. [A] warm, truthful, character-driven novel worth a read for its unusual and entirely believable characters

A Guardian Summer Read

FROM THE WINNER OF THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2022 
 
'Reading The Saint of Lost Things was one of those perfect reading experiences that come along very occasionally; it's moving, funny, tragic, triumphant, totally gripping, a pure gift of a novel' DONAL RYAN 
'Superb' FINANCIAL TIMES 
'You'll be moved, you might laugh and there may well be redemption' EVENING STANDARD 
'Thoroughly absorbing' GUARDIAN 
 
Lindy Morris is stuck. She lives in rural Ireland, banished to a lonely bungalow by her Granda Morris, with only her Auntie Bell and the TV for company. 
 
But one day Lindy realises that life is not quite what she thought it was: her mother's disappearance and her own lost years need to be brought out into the light. Suddenly Lindy is awake, uncovering the very secrets that will release her from her past. 
 
Told with devastating wit and poignancy, THE SAINT OF LOST THINGS is the triumphant story of an unlikely heroine as she makes her bid for freedom.

Tish Delaney

Praise for The Saint of Lost Things

Tish Delaney's first novel, Before My Actual Heart Breaks, suggested that she was an author of rare promise and acuity. This follow-up confirms her as one of the most arresting voices of her generation.

Reading The Saint of Lost Things was one of those perfect reading experiences that come along very occasionally; it's moving, funny, tragic, triumphant, totally gripping, a pure gift of a novel

Superb. An assured second novel. The destructive impulses driving Delaney's characters reap a bitter harvest. Delaney has a long and fruitful career ahead of her

Tish Delaney's first novel, Before My Actual Heart Breaks, suggested that she was an author of rare promise and acuity. This follow-up confirms her as one of the most arresting voices of her generation.

Reading The Saint of Lost Things was one of those perfect reading experiences that come along very occasionally; it's moving, funny, tragic, triumphant, totally gripping, a pure gift of a novel

Superb. An assured second novel. The destructive impulses driving Delaney's characters reap a bitter harvest. Delaney has a long and fruitful career ahead of her

Tish Delaney's first novel, Before My Actual Heart Breaks, suggested that she was an author of rare promise and acuity. This follow-up confirms her as one of the most arresting voices of her generation.

Reading The Saint of Lost Things was one of those perfect reading experiences that come along very occasionally; it's moving, funny, tragic, triumphant, totally gripping, a pure gift of a novel

Superb. An assured second novel. The destructive impulses driving Delaney's characters reap a bitter harvest. Delaney has a long and fruitful career ahead of her

Books by Tish Delaney

Articles featuring Tish Delaney

Books that feel like a warm hug

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