Iron Annie

LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOT PRIZE 2022

'The energy, the voice, the language, the characters, all real, raw and utterly convincing' - Fíona Scarlett, author of Boys Don't Cry

'Wonderful, imaginative, highly original emotional rollercoaster of a story' - Peter James

I still think'a her every day, several times a day.

Aoife knows everyone in Dundalk's underworld. Too well, in some cases. But when she meets Annie, a beautiful whirlwind of a woman, and brings her to the Town, she finds that she doesn't know nearly enough about her. Annie is magnetic and wild and Aoife's desire to learn more quickly becomes a need, and then an obsession – to know this dangerous woman, to love her, to keep her.

So when Aoife's friend and collaborator the Rat King asks her to help him dispose of ten kilos of cocaine, swiped from a rival, she brings Annie along for a road trip through a Britain that she only knows as a place to be suspicious of. So when Annie decides she doesn't want to return to Ireland, Aoife makes a decision that changes everything.

Gritty and yet tender, tragic and yet hopeful, Iron Annie is a breakneck journey that crackles with energy, warmth and heart, and marks the arrival of a fresh and vibrant new voice in literary fiction.

'Full of wonder, grit, insight, sadness and joy' - Donal Ryan, author of The Spinning Heart