Ordinary Human Failings: The heart-breaking, unflinching, compulsive new novel from the author of Acts of Desperation

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When a reporter, Tom Hargreaves, with a fierce ambition and a brisk disregard for the ‘peasants’ – ordinary people, his readers – stumbles across this scoop, a dead child on a London estate, grieving parents loved across the neighbourhood and the finger of suspicion pointing at one reclusive family of Irish immigrants and ‘bad apples’, he persuades his paper to put them up in a hotel with all bar expenses paid.

Devoured it in 2 days. Compulsively readable. I loved Carmel and Richie’s stories set in Waterford. She’s so good at capturing the little crazy details of people, I could relate to Tom always imagining the most inappropriate actions he could take at any one time, including having to restrain himself at the yearly pantomime as he pictured himself running on stage sand stripping naked. My only criticism was it tied a little too neatly at the end. I also think the incorporation of the title ‘ordinary human failings’ into the text was a bit much. It's 1990 in London and Tom Hargreaves has it all: a burgeoning career as a reporter, fierce ambition and a brisk disregard for the "peasants" - ordinary people, his readers, easy tabloid fodder. His star looks set to rise when he stumbles across a scoop: a dead child on a London estate, grieving parents loved across the neighbourhood, and the finger of suspicion pointing at one reclusive family of Irish immigrants and 'bad apples': the Greens. In quello spazio sperava che i contorni delle scuse che le aveva rivolto anni prima, così trascurabili nella loro forma parlata, diventassero evidenti e concreti. Le scuse che ancora non riusciva a esprimere in modo eloquente, quelle che non sarebbero mai finite e che lei rivolgeva a Lucy e alla bambina a cui aveva tolto la vita, e a se stessa, ogni mattina che si svegliava, pensando, Mi dispiace, mi dispiace, mi dispiace”…. I’m excited about Megan Nolan’s second novel, Ordinary Human Failings, which will be out in July. This is her follow-up to the incisive Acts of Desperation, which took the form of a post-mortem of an obsessive, power-imbalanced relationship. This new book follows an ambitious news reporter whose investigation into a child’s sudden death on a 1990s London housing estate leads him to an Irish immigrant family with a notorious reputation. But are they at fault? Nolan specialises in the creation of emotional landscapes so bright one can barely look at them.” Readmore...

It’s also a book about the absence of affection, and how that can mark you. It’s also about emigration and loneliness, about some of the issues facing women in Ireland. State of the nation novel was the original intent. . Jonathan Coe What a Carve Up was an influence. In my experience authors tend to dislike questions about their fiction novels where the interviewer asks how much is autobiographical. Rachel Cusk and Knausgaard openly embrace the idea, but it seems to me that Megan Nolan is conflicted on the extent to which she both wants, and manages, to write about a world and lives which are outside her personal experiences. impossibile rimanere impassibili di fronte al racconto della gravidanza di Carmel o del problema di alcolismo di Richard, il fratello maggiore. Per non parlare dei problemi di dipendenza affettiva di John, il padre di famiglia. A tutto questo si lega anche la storia del giornalista, anch'egli, in quanto umano, soggetto alle "piccole debolezze".

Michal Shavit, publishing director at Jonathan Cape, acquired UK & Commonwealth rights from Harriet Moore at David Higham. This is also a novel about addiction and alcoholism, and one that approaches the subject with rare insight. Nolan is superb on the bargaining that often goes hand in hand with substance abuse. Her characters make endless rules to govern their consumption – certain drinks in certain quantities at certain times. They spot patterns in the drinking of others, notice that their own lives are getting smaller by the glass. It’s heavy stuff, but it’s well earned.