SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2025 'A remarkable debut. A complex and
compulsive read that unravels the intricate twists and revelations among three generations of
women with elegance and urgency' Miranda Cowley Heller bestselling author of THE PAPER PALACE
'A saga: its serious pleasures are its expansiveness and range and Airey's rare particular
instinct... a cool bold image of female pain and liberation' Guardian It is late September
in 2001 and the walls of New York are papered over with photos of the missing. Cora Brady's
father is there the poster she made taped to columns and bridges. Her mother died long ago and
now orphaned on the cusp of adulthood Cora is adrift and alone. Soon a letter will arrive
with the offer of a new life: far out on the ragged edge of Ireland in the town where her
parents were young an estranged aunt can provide a home and fulfil a long-forgotten promise.
There the story of Cora's family is hidden and in her presence will begin to unspool... An
essential immersive debut from an astonishing new voice Confessions traces the arc of three
generations of women as they experience in their own time the irresistible gravity of the past:
its love and tragedy its mystery and redemption and in all things intended and accidental
the beauty and terrible shade of the things we do. 'A beating heart of a novel intricate
both in its weaving and its unspooling. An irresistible read' Yael van der Wouden
Booker-shortlisted author of THE SAFEKEEP 'Propulsive and utterly captivating ... Airey has
shades of the American novelists Donna Tartt and Jeffrey Eugenides in her style' Irish Times
