Danielle McLaughlin

McLaughlin’s compelling prose ensures that we care about the life of these characters, particularly Nessa, who is drawn convincingly with nuance and shade.... There’s also humour nestling amid the drama,...The Art of Falling is the rarest of novels, as it’s both a page-turner and an affecting meditation on love, art, truth and faithfulness in all its forms.

JOHN WALSHE
The Sunday Business Post

Danielle McLaughlin is a remarkable writer. Reading “Dinosaurs on Other Planets,” her 2016 collection of short stories, one is struck by the sheer gorgeousness of the prose, particularly in descriptions of natural settings; by the quick, seemingly effortless characterizations of her often very complex characters; by the elegant and sometimes devastating economy of the narration; and by McLaughlin’s sure-handed sense of the shape of the short story. It’s exciting to read the work of someone who is so clearly gifted.

SUE MILLER
The New York Times

For such a meaty, sparky book — McLaughlin keeps multiple plates not just spinning, but humming harmoniously...It’s a superior work of character-driven literary fiction in the spirit of Bernard MacLaverty or Tessa Hadley... What I’m saying is, if The Art of Falling doesn’t make a prize shortlist or two this year, we should riot.

JOHN SELF
The Times

The Art of Falling, set mainly in contemporary Cork, is a compelling exploration of the ethics and emotional contours of marital affection and sexual infidelity... a gripping and thoughtful novel, taut with narrative suspense and brimming with emotional insight.

DOUG BATTERSBY
The Financial Times

McLaughlin’s remarkable debut novel...McLaughlin’s descriptions of the art and its appeal have an almost mythic quality...and she has a gift for precise characterization. This engaging and evocative work will stay with readers..

STARRED REVIEW
Publishers Weekly

That the tensile quality of the writing can be sustained across 11 stories is a testament to the author’s devotion to craft and to an obvious flair for the musicality of language. What’s here are controlled notes, meticulous melodies. ... This is a remarkable first collection from a distinctive and extremely gifted writer on the brink of major recognition.

BILLY O'CALLAGHAN
The Irish Examiner

McLaughlin's writing is so captivating and visual that you are instantly in the story from the first paragraph. She knows just the right amount of information to give, almost frustrating us with the unknowns, but providing enough suggestions and clues to keep us going ... McLaughlin conveys so much with so little.

SOPHIE GORMAN
The Irish Independent

Through her acute and thoughtful take on issues of truth-telling, McLaughlin reminds us that the novel remains a good mode to investigate our relationship to truth, in part because as a made-up form it remains flexible in its idea of truth. Being and seeming are both put brilliantly in question in this moving and quietly uplifting book.

LARA FEIGEL
The Guardian