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'Wonderfully authentic, electrifying' Clare Chambers
Two couples. Twenty years. One unforgettable story.
Dylan, Stevie and Ben have been inseparable since their days at Trinity, when life pulsed with possibility. A single glance can still summon their younger selves: dancing beneath flashing lights, salt on their skin after swims in Dublin Bay.
Two decades later, their dreams have faltered. Dylan, once a rugby star, is stranded on the sofa, tended by his wife, Rachel. Across town, in their new build, Stevie and Ben's relationship has settled into an airless routine. Then, after countless auditions, Ben lands a role in Pinter's Betrayal.
As rehearsals unfold, the play's shifting loyalties seep into reality, stirring old jealousies and awakening forbidden longings, as each must confront how far they are willing to go in pursuit of desire.
Wry, sexy and deftly observed, Little Vanities is a novel about the perilous thrill of stepping outside the roles we've been given-and the distance between the lives we imagined and the ones we find ourselves living.
'Messy, complicated, compelling' Emilie Pine, author of Ruth & Pen'A riveting tale of emotional infidelity' Aingeala Flannery, author of The Amusements
'Scrupulous and elegant' Kathleen MacMahon, author of Nothing But Blue Sky
'Fantastic at examining the tussles between people in relationships' The Times
'Acutely observed, beautifully written' Joseph O'Connor, author of Star of the Sea
'A natural writer' Anne Enright, author of The Wren, The Wren
Two couples. Twenty years. One unforgettable story.
Dylan, Stevie and Ben have been inseparable since their days at Trinity, when life pulsed with possibility. A single glance can still summon their younger selves: dancing beneath flashing lights, salt on their skin after swims in Dublin Bay.
Two decades later, their dreams have faltered. Dylan, once a rugby star, is stranded on the sofa, tended by his wife, Rachel. Across town, in their new build, Stevie and Ben's relationship has settled into an airless routine. Then, after countless auditions, Ben lands a role in Pinter's Betrayal.
As rehearsals unfold, the play's shifting loyalties seep into reality, stirring old jealousies and awakening forbidden longings, as each must confront how far they are willing to go in pursuit of desire.
Wry, sexy and deftly observed, Little Vanities is a novel about the perilous thrill of stepping outside the roles we've been given-and the distance between the lives we imagined and the ones we find ourselves living.
'Messy, complicated, compelling' Emilie Pine, author of Ruth & Pen'A riveting tale of emotional infidelity' Aingeala Flannery, author of The Amusements
'Scrupulous and elegant' Kathleen MacMahon, author of Nothing But Blue Sky
'Fantastic at examining the tussles between people in relationships' The Times
'Acutely observed, beautifully written' Joseph O'Connor, author of Star of the Sea
'A natural writer' Anne Enright, author of The Wren, The Wren
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Reviews
"Gilmartin excels at complex and authentic characters. We get friendship, lies, recrimination, resentment, jealousy, betrayal and sex, bidden and forbidden. In other words, all the good stuff. . . A near-flawless novel from an Irish writer who just gets better and better"
Irish Times
"Fantastic at examining the tussles between people in relationships of all kinds"
The Times
"Gilmartin's Dublin novel follows old Trinity friends whose routines are unsettled by buried desire, secrets and a Pinter play. Its appeal is sharp social observation, intimate betrayals and the uneasy pleasure of watching familiar lives crack open"
Image Magazine