HarperCollins Ireland snaps up 'whip-smart' novel from Ardal O'Hanlon

HarperCollins Ireland has snapped up a “whip-smart” new novel from actor, comedian, writer and former "Father Ted" star Ardal O’Hanlon.

Conor Nagle, publisher, bought UK and Commonwealth rights to Brouhaha from Dawn Sedgwick at Dawn Sedgwick Talent & Literary Management. It will be published on 26th May 2022. 

The publisher described the novel as “a mystery, a black comedy and a satire on Ireland’s tangled politics of memory”. It added: “Brouhaha is an edgy, funny and fierce novel set in a small town on the Irish border during the transition to peace. And peace doesn’t come easy in these parts. Dove Connolly’s sudden death spreads panic among the Tullyanna townspeople and raises all sorts of ugly questions, reviving rumours and inviting unwelcome attention upon them.” 

The book, O’Hanlon’s second novel, comes 24 years after his debut The Talk of the Town was published in 1998 by Sceptre.

He said: “I’m absolutely delighted that my second novel, Brouhaha, is being published by HarperCollins. It’s a crime fiction, a satire, an existentialist story set in the border region during a febrile period in recent Irish history. (Just like every other period in Irish history, then!) Growing up there, I’ve always been captivated by the language, deadpan character and dark humour of the people and the place. In trying to capture that, I’ve tried to write the sort of book I love to read—pacy, thrilling, edgy, insightful, funny and humane—and I really hope people enjoy it.” 

Nagle commented: “Brouhaha eludes easy definition. It’s ostensibly a novel about the unsolved disappearance of a young woman in a close-knit border town, but that hardly does justice to the breadth and scale of Ardal’s vision. For all the obvious joy he takes in mining the oddities, blind spots and petty hypocrisies of everyday human interaction for their comic value, this is a story set in motion and animated by big ideas—about community, compassion, truth, not to mention the ideological conflicts that have shaped Irish society for well over a century. It’s a supremely accomplished novel and one we couldn’t be more excited to share with the world.”