We Are Not in the World

We Are Not in the World

‘compelling and profoundly moving’ Irish Times

Summary

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'Haunting, mesmerising, and so deeply intelligent about the interwoven strengths and frailties of the human heart.' Kamila Shamsie


Heartbroken after a long, painful love affair, a man takes a job driving a haulage lorry through France. Travelling with him is a secret passenger - his daughter. Twenty-something, unkempt, off the rails.

With a week on the road together, man and girl must attempt to restore themselves and each other, and to repair a relationship that is at once fiercely loving and deeply scarred.

As the pair journey down the motorways and through the service stations of France, a devastating picture reveals itself: a story of grief, of shame, and of love in all its complex, dark and glorious manifestations.

PRAISE FOR WE ARE NOT IN THE WORLD:
'Wonderful, wrenching . . . full of enormous feelings very precisely rendered' Sara Baume
'A whirlpool of memories, regrets and hopes' Tim Pears
'An uncanny ability to turn the seemingly insignificant into something monumental' Jan Carson
'Unusual, utterly original and mysterious . . . definitely a 2020 must read' Elaine Feeney

© Conor O'Callaghan 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Reviews

  • Haunting, mesmerising, and so deeply intelligent about the interwoven strengths and frailties of the human heart.
    Kamila Shamsie

About the author

Conor O'Callaghan

Conor O'Callaghan is originally from Dundalk, and now divides his time between Dublin and the North of England. His critically acclaimed first novel Nothing on Earth was published by Doubleday Ireland in 2016.
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