*SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2025* 'A remarkable debut' MIRANDA
COWLEY HELLER bestselling author of THE PAPER PALACE '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.
'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 ' An intricately woven epic
Confessions is both intimate and expansive a novel that teems with raw hungry life' COLIN
WALSH author of KALA
