Malarky [Paperback]

Anakana Schofield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2012

Winner of the 2012 Amazon.ca First Novel Award

"A caustic, funny and moving fantasia of an Irish mammy going round the bend." —Emma Donoghue, author of ROOM

Our Woman will not be sunk by what life’s about to serve her. She's caught her son doing unmentionable things out by the barn. She's been accosted by Red the Twit, who claims to have done things with Our Woman’s husband that could frankly have gone without mentioning. And now her son’s gone and joined the army, and Our Woman has found a young fella to do unmentionable things with herself, just so she might understand it all... Malarky is the story of an Irish mother forced to look grief in the eye, and of a wife come face-to-face with the mad agony of longing. Comic, moving, eccentric, and spare, Anakana Schofield’s debut novel introduces a brilliant new voice in contemporary fiction.

Amazon.ca Best Book Of 2012 Editors' Pick

Shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize

New Statesman Read-All-About-It Selection For 2012

Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick, 2012

Salon.com What-To-Read Award-Winner, 2012

Top Five Book Pick, Chatelaine

iTunes Canada Best Of 2012 Fiction Pick

Largehearted Boy Favorite Novel Of 2012

Next Best Book Blog Top 3, 2012

Editorial Reviews

Review

Further Praise for Malarky

An Edmonton Journal Favourite for 2012

A Three-Time Best-Of-The-Year Georgia Straight Selection

"Anakana Schofield is part of a new wave of wonderful Irish fiction—international in scope and electrically alive."—Colum McCann

"Malarky is a terrific read, a brilliant collision of heartbreak and hilarity written in a voice that somehow seems both feral and perfectly controlled. Anakana Schofield's Our Woman takes a cool nod at Joyce, then goes her own way in one of the most moving and lyrical debut novels I've read."—Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins

"We become comfortable saying that there's nothing new, and then something like Malarky comes along, which is new and old and different and familiar, but ultimately itself, comfortable in its own skin, wise and smart and crazy-sexy or maybe sexy-crazy—well, you just have to read it to understand. It's a novel that sets its own course, sure and steady, even when it seems like it might be about to go over the edge
of the world."—Laura Lippman

"This is the story of Anakana Schofield's teapot-wielding 'Our Woman': fretful mother, disgruntled farmwife, and—surprisingly late in life—sexual outlaw/anthropologist. Everything about this primly raunchy, uproarious novel is unexpected—each draught poured from the teapot marks another moment of pure literary audacity."—Lynn Coady, author of The Antagonist

"Anyone bold enough to name her book after a word so loaded deserves our attention. In Malarky Schofield pulls her long line tight—and lets go when we least expect it."—Michael Turner, author of Hard Core Logo

"Malarky spins and glitters like a coin flipped in the air—now searingly tragic, now blackly funny. The language is joyful and exuberant, the characters thoughtful and deeply felt. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant."—Annabel Lyon

"Good writing and dark wit always excite me and they come together thrillingly in this book. It has a quiet grip on the strangeness of the interior and exterior worlds of love and politics. I delighted in the writing and the scope."—Jenny Diski

From the Back Cover

Advance Praise for Malarky

"Good writing and dark wit always excite me and they come together thrillingly in this book. It has a quiet grip on the strangeness of the interior and exterior worlds of love and politics and their inextricability. I delighted in the writing and the scope - macro and microscopic."—Jenny Diski

"Malarky spins and glitters like a coin flipped in the air--now searingly tragic, now blackly funny. The language is joyful and exuberant, the characters thoughtful and deeply felt. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant." —Annabel Lyon


With Malarky, Anakana Schofield has delivered a character as extraordinary as Brecht’s Mother Courage, and a domestic situation that rivals Beckett’s Endgame for its stagnant and sorrowful absurdity.

Our Woman Philomena has just caught her son Jimmy in the barn with another man. She’s been accosted by Red the Twit, who energetically discloses the infidelities—real, imagined, or in any event peculiar—of Our Woman’s husband.

Swamped by a confusion she refuses to let overcome her, Philomena embarks on rural odyssey that skirts madness, passes through grief, and returns her to the remarkable resilience of spirit that will make Our Woman the character of the decade. Schofield’s wicked humour is everywhere apparent, and Malarky, brilliantly drawn in the cadences of contemporary Ireland, is an absolutely peerless tour-de-force.


Anakana Schofield is an Irish-Canadian writer of fiction, drama, essays, and literary criticism. She contributes to the London Review of Books, The Recorder: The Journal of the American Irish Historical Society, the Globe & Mail, and the Vancouver Sun. She has lived in London and Dublin, and now resides in Vancouver. Malarky is her first novel.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 225 pages
• Publisher: Biblioasis (April 3, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1926845382
• ISBN-13: 978-1926845388
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #820,576 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anakana Schofield is an Irish-Canadian writer of fiction, essays, and literary criticism. She has contributed to the London Review of Books, The Recorder: The Journal of the American Irish Historical Society, the Globe and Mail, and the Vancouver Sun. She has lived in London, England and Dublin, Ireland and now resides in Vancouver. Malarky is her first novel.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Crazy, normal people! April 20, 2012

By Janey Mc

Format:Paperback

Some books can't be easily pigeonholed, defy neat descriptions - that's Malarky. I could tell you what it's about, but that's not the point of it really. The point is just to get to know the people, the characters and perhaps recognise them, or even just notice them, and their experiences.
If you know Ireland, you'll know Malarky. But equally, if you know aging, pain, loss, unattractiveness, friendship, motherhood, madness and general hilarity, then fear not - it's for you too!! And as a bonus, it will transform your view of the Emerald Isle!

You'd need a hard heart not to feel Malarky and if it doesn't make you laugh I'm afraid you're a lost soul. Malarky is for that bit of crazy in all of us and it's for the secret stories and rich lives of the people you pass by every day in the store, on the bus and never give a second glance or thought to. Aren't those the best books?

It's for all of us who hold intense conversations in our heads, with ourselves, about next to nothing half the time! A friend bought it for me, perhaps she knows!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Our Woman shocks and delights in Malarky April 19, 2012

By Maud Gonne

Format:Paperback

Finally..a strong country female voice from rural Ireland. Maeve Binchy this ain't and all the more reason to rush out and buy it and treasure it. Anakana Schofield's Malarky is well.. full of malarky and it is at times hilariously funny, shocking, endearing and heartbreaking. Our Woman is a middle-aged farmer's wife stuck in a loveless marriage and struck with doubts about her husband's faithfulness. Once the doubt is planted in her mind, she goes off on a sexual journey of intent or discovery and wonders why her husband would enjoy cheating on her. Then there's her concern for her gay son off in the army to Afghanistan. She obsesses about his cavorting with young men in the surrounding areas of their farm when he was younger. The beauty is in the detail though and Schofield's descriptions of cups of tea and the ordinary mundane richness of everyday life are extraordinary.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Malarky April 20, 2012

By Henry

Format:Paperback

Anakana Schofield's Malarky will make you laugh, cry, rue the day, kick against the pricks, laugh and cry some more, clasp to your breast the ones you cherish most, question your own complacencies and drink cups and cups of tea. If you haven't read it yet, then what are you waiting for? Put the kettle on and get reading.