Today the debut spotlight shines on Fionnuala Kearney whose debut novel You, Me & Other People was published last month in Ireland and is also available as an eBook and will be published in paperback format here in the UK in June.
Fionnuala discovered, age six, that she had in fact been christened Ann (that’s Ann with no ‘e’) and that her parents had decided, for some reason, to saddle her with a life of dealing with unnecessary vowels. At twenty she moved to London and marrying Mr. Kearney proved to be the best thing she ever did, apart from the fact that the vowel thing escalated further. Two daughters, both with deliberately simple mono syllabic names followed.
She worked, for many years, in London as a home search agent (like Phil and Kirstie without the cameras) until she decided, one fateful day, that it was time for a change – time to pursue the dream of being a writer.
Seven years on; time spent in her garret learning her craft, she is often found talking to herself with yellow ‘post its’ stuck to her forehead. She likes to write about relationships: couples, a mother and child, siblings, best friends… She likes to peel away the layers and see what’s going on beneath and then tell you all about it.
THEY SAY EVERY FAMILY HAS SKELETONS IN THEIR CLOSET . . .
But what happens when you open the door and they won’t stop tumbling out?
For Adam and Beth the first secret wasn’t the last, it was just the beginning.
You think you can imagine the worst thing that could happen to your family, but there are some secrets that change everything.
And then the question is, how can you piece together a future when your past is being rewritten?
Can you tell us a little bit about your debut novel You, Me and Other People?
It tells the story of a marriage in freefall, the ripple effects of betrayal and secrets within a family and it’s told from both the wife, Beth’s and the husband Adam’s point of view. It explores themes of love, loss and grief and I hope it’s an honest portrayal of real life when things crumble and unravel. I love writing about imperfect, flawed characters and it was a challenge to try and get into the head of an errant forty three year old male but I was surprised at how much I loved doing it!
To be honest though, since some of my favourite literary characters are tortured males, Heathcliff from the classics and Dexter from contemporary fiction, it was something I was always going to try. Being in both Beth’s and Adam’s head was definitely the best way to tell their particular tale. I hope they both manage to portray that sometimes it’s our flaws as well as our strengths that make us human. You’ll probably laugh out loud a few times during the story (at least I hope so) and you’ll probably shed a tear too…
