Nesting: Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025; the tender, soaring debut you won't be able to forget
Roisin O'Donnell
Jan 2025 · Simon and Schuster · Narrated by Louisa Harland
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10 hr 11 min
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About this audiobook
This audiobook is narrated by Louisa Harland, star of Derry Girls and Renegade Nell.
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER
A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK
AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST OF 2025
'Tense, forensically realistic and compulsively readable. A real achievement' SUNDAY TIMES
‘Here is a novelist who has powerful news to tell, and an impressive range of narrative gifts with which to tell it’ IRISH TIMES
‘Should become essential reading for all. Nesting is a novel that truly matters’ SUNDAY INDEPENDENT
'A moving portrait of life inside the housing system and the courage it takes to try to build a home in society’s cracks' GUARDIAN
_______________________________________________________________
An extraordinary and urgent debut by a prize-winning Irish writer, NESTING introduces an unforgettable new voice in fiction.
On a bright spring afternoon in Dublin, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change everything. Grabbing an armful of clothes from the washing line, Ciara straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe.
This was meant to be an escape. But with dwindling savings, no job, and her family across the sea, Ciara finds herself adrift, facing a broken housing system and the voice of her own demons. As summer passes and winter closes in, she must navigate raising her children in a hotel room, searching for a new home and dealing with her husband Ryan’s relentless campaign to get her to come back. Because leaving is one thing, but staying away is another.
What will it take for Ciara to rebuild her life? Can she ever truly break away from Ryan’s control – and what will be the cost?
Tense, beautiful, and underpinned by an unassailable love, hope and resilience, this is the story of one woman’s bid to start over.
_______________________________________________________________
‘Brand-new, urgent and hugely satisfying’ RODDY DOYLE
'As emotionally charged as it is brutally real. The writing is flawless. I was profoundly moved’ ELAINE FEENEY
‘Will make your blood boil and your heart soar. This is an important novel' CLAIRE KILROY
‘Gorgeous, maddening, thrilling and compassionate’ SHEILA ARMSTRONG
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER
A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK
AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST OF 2025
'Tense, forensically realistic and compulsively readable. A real achievement' SUNDAY TIMES
‘Here is a novelist who has powerful news to tell, and an impressive range of narrative gifts with which to tell it’ IRISH TIMES
‘Should become essential reading for all. Nesting is a novel that truly matters’ SUNDAY INDEPENDENT
'A moving portrait of life inside the housing system and the courage it takes to try to build a home in society’s cracks' GUARDIAN
_______________________________________________________________
An extraordinary and urgent debut by a prize-winning Irish writer, NESTING introduces an unforgettable new voice in fiction.
On a bright spring afternoon in Dublin, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change everything. Grabbing an armful of clothes from the washing line, Ciara straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe.
This was meant to be an escape. But with dwindling savings, no job, and her family across the sea, Ciara finds herself adrift, facing a broken housing system and the voice of her own demons. As summer passes and winter closes in, she must navigate raising her children in a hotel room, searching for a new home and dealing with her husband Ryan’s relentless campaign to get her to come back. Because leaving is one thing, but staying away is another.
What will it take for Ciara to rebuild her life? Can she ever truly break away from Ryan’s control – and what will be the cost?
Tense, beautiful, and underpinned by an unassailable love, hope and resilience, this is the story of one woman’s bid to start over.
_______________________________________________________________
‘Brand-new, urgent and hugely satisfying’ RODDY DOYLE
'As emotionally charged as it is brutally real. The writing is flawless. I was profoundly moved’ ELAINE FEENEY
‘Will make your blood boil and your heart soar. This is an important novel' CLAIRE KILROY
‘Gorgeous, maddening, thrilling and compassionate’ SHEILA ARMSTRONG
Ratings and reviews
5.0
2 reviews
About the author
Roisín O'Donnell is an award-winning writer. In 2018, Roisín won the prize for Short Story of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards, and was shortlisted for the same prize again in 2022. She is the author of the story collection Wild Quiet, which was longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and shortlisted for the Kate O’Brien Award. Her short fiction has featured in numerous publications, including The Stinging Fly, The Tangerine and the Irish Times. Nesting is her debut novel. She lives near Dublin with her two children.
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