Caitriona 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.

About the Author

CAITRIONA LALLY is the recipient of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature (2018) and the Lannan Literary Fellowship (2019). Her first novel, Eggshells, was published in the US by Melville House. She works as a cleaner in Trinity College Dublin and lives in Dublin City. Wunderland is her second novel.

Reviews

They say that the voice is dead in modern literature, that one good author's voice sounds just like another. Caitriona 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 *

Caitriona 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

Caitriona Lally's absorbing Wunderland is an insightful sibling study

-- Sue Leonard * Irish Examiner *



Book Information
ISBN 9781848408050
Author Caitriona Lally
Format Paperback
Page Count 278
Imprint New Island Books
Publisher New Island Books
Weight(grams) 311g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 135mm * 30mm