Meet Majella O'Neill, a heroine like no other, in this captivating Irish debut that has been called Milkman meets Derry Girls. For fans of Sally Rooney, Ottessa Moshfegh, and accessible literary fiction with an edge.
Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and the Irish Book Awards Newcomer of the Year
Majella is happiest out of the spotlight, away from her neighbors' stares and the gossips of the small town in Northern Ireland where she grew up just after the Troubles. She lives a quiet life caring for her alcoholic mother, working in the local chip shop, watching the regular customers come and go. She wears the same clothes each day (overalls, too small), has the same dinner each night (fish and chips, microwaved at home after her shift ends), and binge-watches old DVDs of the same show (Dallas, best show on TV) from the comfort of her bed.
But underneath Majella's seemingly ordinary life are the facts that she doesn't know where her father is and that every person in her town has been changed by the lingering divide between Protestants and Catholics. When Majella's predictable existence is upended by the death of her granny, she comes to realize there may be more to life than the gossips of Aghybogey, the pub, and the chip shop. In fact, there just may be a whole big world outside her small town.
Told in a highly original voice, with a captivating heroine readers will love and root for, Big Girl, Small Town will appeal to fans of Sally Rooney, Ottessa Moshfegh, and accessible literary fiction with an edge.
Trade Paperback Original
"Make room for this late arrival from Dublin: an immensely lovable debut novel by Michelle Gallen called Big Girl, Small Town....There are so many scenes — Majella sitting in her late grandmother's farmhouse, having sex in the storeroom or recalling a batch of drowned kittens — that feel like literary alchemy. Again and again, with the raw elements of this cramped life, Gallen manages to evoke in us a wave of complex feelings. It's the kind of magic you'll feel lucky to find." - Ron Charles, The Washington Post
"[a] sensational debut… Gallen's effortless immersion into a gritty, endlessly bittersweet world packs a dizzying punch." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"With echoes of Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine crossed with the 1990s-set British sitcom Derry Girls, this debut is recommended for fans of Ottessa Moshfegh, Emma Donoghue, and Sally Rooney." - Library Journal (starred review)
"A darkly hilarious novel about small-town life ... Wildly entertaining." - The Guardian
"Sinead Moriarty's endorsement 'Milkman meets Derry Girls' is as accurate as you'll get. But Big Girl, Small Town is even funnier than Derry Girls, while being just as fraught as Anna Burns's Booker Prize winner." - The Irish Independent
"A confident debut with a very memorable protagonist." - The Irish Times
"Engrossing." - Image magazine (One of 8 "Must Reads" of 2020)
"It's the humour, dry and gritty, that sets Big Girl, Small Town apart ... to think that this is Michelle Gallen's debut is astonishing, as Majella's narration is bold and assured ... evocative, caustic and compelling." - Sunday Business Post
"Northern Ireland is currently producing more exceptional writers per square inch than possibly anywhere else ... Michelle Gallen will most certainly earn her place in the honours list. Big Girl, Small Town is even funnier than Derry Girls, while being just as fraught as Anna Burns's Booker Prize winner." - Sunday Independent
"A winning evocation of a small Irish community whose people burst from its pages. Engaging and satisfying." - Daily Mail
"Superb." - Irish Examiner
"Darkly funny." - Mail on Sunday
"Gallen's debut deserves comparisons with Anna Burns' Milkman for its depiction of the impact of the Troubles on a vulnerable young woman, but this terrifically imagined tender black comedy is very much its own book." - Metro
"Charming ... there is an easy warmth to Big Girl, Small Town." - Sunday Times
"Gallen's unrelenting eye for the bizarre and Coughlan's talent for deadpanning make it an absolute winner." - Financial Times
"Milkman meets Derry Girls. A cracking read." - Sinead Moriarty, bestselling author of Seven Letters
"Bawdy yet beautiful ... I grew extraordinarily attached to Majella." - Sara Baume, author of A Line Made by Walking
"A thrillingly fresh, provocative and touching voice." - Marian Keyes, bestselling author of Grown Ups
This information about Big Girl, Small Town was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Michelle Gallen was born in County Tyrone in the mid 1970s and grew up during the Troubles a few miles from the border between what she was told was the "Free" State and the "United" Kingdom. She studied English literature at Trinity College Dublin and won several prestigious prizes as a young writer. Following a devastating brain injury in her midtwenties, she co-founded three award-winning companies and won international recognition for digital innovation. She now lives in Dublin with her husband and kids.
Link to Michelle Gallen's Website
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