Description
Book SynopsisCaitríona Lally’s sophomore novel centres around an outsider protagonist, Roy, an Irishman exiled from Ireland to Hamburg for unknown reasons.
In his new, simple life he works as a cleaner at the Wunderland miniature exhibition where he is more comfortable meddling in the tiny scenes than he is in interacting with his co-workers and visitors to the museum.
To Roy’s almost total indifference, his sister Gert visits for a few days, the first of their family to do so since his exile, and she patiently and then not-so-patiently tries to talk to him and discover what really prompted his move away. But Gert is fighting her own demons, having checked out of her exhausting family life where she is losing herself in the face of her husband’s deepening depression.
Latent forces within brother and sister explode to force them to do something – anything – to change their stagnant and bewildering lives.
Trade ReviewThey say that the voice is dead in modern literature, that one good author’s voice sounds just like another. Caitríona Lally’s work makes a lie of that. She delights in language and in bringing multifaceted, believable characters and their complicated relationships to the page. If what you’re after is an accessible, funny and real read, pick this book.
-- Estelle Birdy * Sunday Independent *
Caitríona Lally brings a rare mix of inventiveness and readability to her second novel, a story about two troubled siblings and how they communicate
-- Niamh Donnelly, Sunday Business Post
Caitríona Lally's absorbing Wunderland is an insightful sibling study
-- Sue Leonard * Irish Examiner *
