Sandycove snaps up 'dazzling' debut by Flannery

Sandycove has snapped up a "dazzling" debut novel by journalist Aingeala Flannery.

Patricia Deevy, deputy publisher, bought Irish and British Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, for The Amusements from Claire Wilson at RCW Literary Agency. It will publish on 23rd June 2022.

The synopsis says: "In the resort town of Tramore, County Waterford, visitors arrive in waves with the tourist season, reliving the best days of their childhoods at the seaside amusements. Local teenager Helen Grant is indifferent to the charm of her surroundings; infatuated with her glamorous classmate Stella Swaine, she yearns to escape with her to art college, and from there, the world. But leaving Tramore is easier said than done. With an alcoholic father and an unsympathetic mother, Helen's family life may shatter her dream, just when it seems to be within reach…"

Flannery is a journalist and broadcaster. Her short story "Visiting Hours" won the 2019 Harper's Bazaar Short Story Competition. In 2020 and 2021, she was awarded a Literature Bursary by the Arts Council of Ireland. Her work has appeared in The Bath Anthology and has been broadcast on RTÉ Radio One as part of the Francis MacManus Short Story Competition. 

Deevy said: "In The Amusements Aingeala pulls off a dazzling bit of writing – it is, all at the same time, warm and sympathetic yet clear-eyed and sharp, nostalgic yet unsentimental, local and universal. Her characters and their lives are drawn with such artful simplicity that reading it is an utter pleasure. I could not be prouder that Aingeala has trusted us to publish her extraordinary debut."

Flannery added: "Since childhood I’ve been fascinated by seaside towns, and what goes on in these places when tourists leave.  My mind has been populated by imaginary residents of Tramore for years, some had to be dragged kicking and screaming onto the page, others jumped right out, too eager to be heard. Here they are now in The Amusements, the Grants, the Swaines, their friends and neighbours, all of them are real to me, and I hope they resonate with readers. Thank you to my agent Claire Wilson for finding a home for them at Sandycove, and to my editor Patricia Deevy for loving them, warts and all, as much as I do."