Old Romantics

‘As for the prose, you could bathe in it. The details, the clever turns of phrase. A ticking clock is “strict, censorious, like a clacking tongue”. A heart bangs “like a broken toy”.’ – Niamh Donnelly, Irish Times

‘the collection builds to four final stories with power, insight and compassion for human frailty’ – Martina Devlin, Irish Independent

A few years ago my husband recommended me for a job in his company. I thought it would be fun, and so a woman named Rosaleen would ring me for a chat. Rosaleen was a senior director in the firm, and these were scheduled chats, but I was always unprepared, running from a room, looking for a pen, or out in the rain, pushing the baby in the pram. Rosaleen had a terse and serious manner that unwound into listless expectation when my turn came to speak. I would say something and she would wait for me to say something better. Rosaleen savoured a pause. The line burned with a shared misgiving even as she made me an astounding offer.

A woman pursues a man who cut ahead of her in a line. Two nice people report that a child is being left unsupervised at a local beach. Romances, old and new, shift and sour.

Old Romantics is an acutely observed and hideously entertaining collection of linked short stories from an astonishing new talent. Unreliable, deceptive and flawed, Maggie Armstrong’s narrators navigate a world of devious attraction and latent hostility from first love through to motherhood.

‘Old Romantics is somehow both elegant and fiery. Maggie Armstrong’s Dublin is full of surprises. An excellent debut.’ Nicole Flattery

‘A feast of edgy, vivid, compelling writing from a storyteller of unique voice and rare skills.’ Joseph O’Connor

‘Funny and awkward and honest and perceptive and shrewd … a very exciting new voice in Irish fiction.’ Louise O’Neill

‘I need to read everything this woman ever writes.’ Cathy Sweeney