The Alternatives

Olwen was plunged prematurely into adulthood when her parents died in tragic circumstances. She and her three younger sisters - each single, each with a PhD - are now in their thirties and leading disparate, distanced lives. Until one day Olwen, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the Earth's future, abruptly vanishes from her home. Together for the first time in years, her three siblings descend on the Irish countryside in search of a sister who doesn't actually want to be found. In an isolated rural bungalow they reach into their uncommon past, confronting both old wounds and a desperately uncertain future. Fiercely witty and unexpectedly hopeful, The Alternatives is an unforgettable portrait of a family perched on our collective precipice, told by one of Ireland's most gifted storytellers.

About the author

Caoilinn Hughes is the author of THE WILD LAUGHTER (2020), which won the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award, was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, and was a finalist for three other awards. Her first novel, ORCHID & THE WASP (2018) won the Collyer Bristow Prize, was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, and was a finalist for four other awards. Her short fiction won the Irish Book Awards' Story of the Year, The Moth Short Story Prize, and an O.Henry Prize. She has been Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin and Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and a Cullman Center Fellow at New York Public Library. THE ALTERNATIVES is her third novel.

• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.4 x 2.8 x 23.4 cm