Whale Fall

Evocative and haunting . . . written with a care and restraint that is rare in a debut novel. It teems with visceral imageryJude Cook, Guardian

O’Connor’s beautifully evocative debut explores the liminal spaces between aspiration and disappointment, adolescence and adulthood, land and sea . . . a highly impressive coming-of-age taleThe Observer

An excellent debut . . . Brief but complete, the book is an example of precisely observed writing that makes a character’s specific existence glimmer with verisimilitude . . . To different eyes, the same island might look like a prison or a romantic enclave, but to actually apprehend the truth of a place or person requires patience, nuanced attention and the painstaking accrual of details. Understanding is hard work, O’Connor suggests, especially when we must release our preconceptions. While the researchers fail to grasp this, Manod does not, and her reward by book’s end, painfully earned, is a new and thrilling resolve.Maggie Shipstead, New York Times

A beautifully nuanced, beguiling first novel, which leaves room for hope. O’Connor has a promising career aheadThe Times