Headwreck

HeadwreckÊby Emer Martin \n \nEmer Martin is an original, radical and vital voice in Irish writing.ÊHer first novel, Breakfast in Babylon (1996), won Book of theÊYear 1996 at the Listowel WritersÕ Week. Martin was awarded theÊGuggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in 1999. Her most recent,Êcritically acclaimed, novel, The Cruelty Men (Lilliput 2017), wasÊshortlisted for the Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award 2019 andÊchallenges a history of silence, institutional lies, evasion and theÊmistreatment of women in mid twentieth-century Ireland. \n \nHeadwreckÊby Emer MartinÊis both a stand-alone workÊand continuation of the fictionalized epic intergenerational familyÊsaga, from 1970 to the present day. It follows the story of theÊOÕConaills, an Irish-speaking family who had moved from Kerry toÊthe Meath Gaeltacht, and the disasters that ensue for their childrenÊin Irish institutions. Told from Mary OÕConaillÕs perspective, theÊvoice in the novel is that of a natural storyteller with a finely tunedÊear for language and symbolism, lending shape to the historicalÊtraumas endured by its characters. \n \nABOUT THE AUTHOR \n \nEmer Martin is a Dubliner who has lived in Paris, London, theÊMiddle East, and New York, and is now living in California, whereÊshe teaches writing, painting, and resisting. Her first novel, BreakfastÊin Babylon won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year AwardÊ1996. Her second, More Bread or IÕll Appear, was published in 1999.ÊBaby Zero, her third novel, appeared in 2007 across Ireland and theÊUnited Kingdom. She was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship inÊ2000 and founded the publishing cooperative Rawmeash in 2014.ÊHer most recent novel, The Cruelty Men, was published by TheÊLilliput Press in 2018.