Wildfire seizes DJ, podcaster and author Annie Mac’s ‘vibrant, unforgettable’ second novel 

Wildfire will publish the second novel by Annie Macmanus, popularly known as Annie Mac, entitled The Mess We’re In.

Editorial director Ella Gordon acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Ben Dunn at DunnFogg. The novel, which follows Orla Quinn, a young Irish woman who arrives in London at the turn of the millennium, living in a squalid Kilburn house with her best friend and a band called Shiva, will be a lead hardback for Wildfire in May 2023.

Its synopsis says that there’s nothing for Orla back home, where her parents’ marriage has crumbled, she’s not speaking to her father, and her mother and sister are drinking too much. Orla wants to make music, but juggling two jobs and partying every night isn’t helping.

And while Orla’s own dreams seem to be going nowhere, Shiva are on the brink of something big. Yet as the hype around the band intensifies, so does the hedonism, and relationships in the house are growing strained.

Macmanus said: “I wrote this book to explore a formative time in my own life, and to help understand my place in the world. I wanted to convey the intensity of moving to London as a young Irish woman at the start of adulthood; dizzy with freedom and thrashing through life, making mistakes and feeling everything viscerally.

“I wanted to explore the emotional turbulence and sometimes suffocating intimacy of female friendship; and I wanted to write about music, and how in a world of chaos and noise, songs can act as guide ropes, helping us to find our way back to ourselves. The Mess We’re In is also a love letter to the Irish diaspora, of which I am a proud member; I hoped to portray the conflicting identities within different generations of the Irish abroad, and the relentless search for belonging when one always feels like one is neither here nor there.”

Gordon said: “With Mother Mother, Annie surprised everyone by writing a poignant, quietly gut-wrenching tale of a single mother and her family in Belfast. Now she showcases her incredible range by telling a very different story.

“Music and fiction fans alike will fall head-over-heels for this vibrant, unforgettable tale of a chaotic young woman finding her feet and finding her sound at such a memorable point in London’s cultural and musical history. I can’t wait for everyone to read it.”