Ordinary Human Failings

After the death of a young girl, the finger of suspicion is pointing at one reclusive family...LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2023FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION 2024After the death of a young girl, the finger of suspicion is pointing at one reclusive family...'Ambitious and original' DAVID NICHOLLS'Gripping... A triumph' SUNDAY TIMESIt's 1990 in London and, after the death of a young girl on an estate, the finger of suspicion is pointing at one reclusive Irish family- the Greens.At their heart sits Carmel- beautiful, other-worldly, and once destined for a future beyond her circumstances until life - and love - got in her way. Now, as the scandal unfolds and the tabloids hunt their monster, she must confront the secrets and silences that have trapped her family for so many generations.A DAILY TELEGRAPH, TIMES, NEW STATESMAN AND SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR'Daring, brilliant... Bold and beautiful' DAILY TELEGRAPH'A compulsive read' THE TIMES'Heartbreaking' VOGUE

Megan Nolan's debut novel saw her grouped with other Irish millennial women such as Sally Rooney and Naoise Dolan. But with her ambitious and insightful second novel, Ordinary Human Failings, Nolan makes it clear she is not a manifestation of a type, but rather a writer to be read on her own terms Financial Times
One masterful novel... Nolan has excelled herself: Ordinary Human Failings is a raw, pulsing thing... A writer who's still at the start of what promises to be a splendid career. Ordinary Human Failings is a bold and beautiful second novel... daring in all the right ways, but compassionate when it needs to be Daily Telegraph
There is something wonderfully ordinary about this book... Nolan has set out to make a plain three-legged stool rather than an ornate grandfather clock. The corridors of contemporary literature are stuffed with grandfather clocks with faulty mechanisms. How much more valuable is this modest, well-made thing Sunday Times
Nolan’s novel is dark in subject, yet retains a tender faith in a person’s, or a family’s, capacity for change New Statesman, Books of the Year
Ambitious and original… I loved its humanity and generosity… I can’t wait to read whatever comes next -- DAVID NICHOLLS, author of One Day and You Are Here
Tightly written, full of wisdom, insight and sympathy – terrific! -- CLARE CHAMBERS, author of Small Pleasures
As much of a compulsive read as the first novel The Times
A subtle, accomplished and lyrical study of familial and intergenerational despair, a quiet book about quiet lives... An excellent novel: politically astute, furious and compassionate... A genuine achievement Guardian
The millennial author everyone should be watching right now Daily Telegraph
Nolan has crafted a novel full of brutal, illuminating truths Sunday Times, Books of the Year

Megan Nolan was born in 1990 in Waterford, Ireland and is currently based in New York. Her essays and reviews have been published by the New York Times, White Review, Guardian and Frieze amongst others. For her debut novel, Acts of Desperation, Nolan was the recipient of a Betty Trask Award, shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Ordinary Human Failings was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, and shortlisted for the Nero Book Award for Fiction, the Gordon Burn Prize and the RSL Encore Award.

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