Mouthing

By: Orla Mackey

Narrated by: Stephen Hogan, Jessica Regan

Brought to you by Penguin.

Sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued, a multigenerational portrait of small-town life in Ireland from a refreshing new talent in literary fiction

Welcome to Ballyrowan.

This sleepy corner of rural Ireland may seem tranquil, but scratch the surface and you'll find a hotbed of gossip and intrigue - endless material for mouthing - and a town full of people only too happy to oblige in spreading the bad news.

Narrated by several generations of villagers, Mouthing traces the fortunes of one small community from the mid-20th century to the early 21st, in a series of highly confessional and darkly hilarious monologues. The good people of Ballyrowan delight in twisting the knife, in tormenting one another, in perfecting the art of schadenfreude. And, it becomes clear, none of them are entirely reliable witnesses.

As each character offers their version of 'the truth', upending our assumptions at every turn, we see how feuds are passed down through the generations, how families are estranged or reunited and fortunes made or lost, how strict social expectations can shift and loosen over decades (and how some things remain stubbornly unchanged). And we see how secret hopes and private sorrows, triumph and humiliation, pleasure and grief are all absorbed into the merciless chorus of mouthing.

Mouthing is an acerbic, unsentimental love letter to rural Irish life, where everyone knows everyone else's business and everyone has an opinion on it - where 'community' is both a lifeboat and a life sentence.

©2024 Orla Mackey (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

'Terrifically sharp-witted and deeply moving, Orla Mackey's novel crackles with intelligence and life.' (Chetna Maroo, author of 'Western Lane')

'Mouthing is full of disgrace, inherited trauma and family secrets that spill all over the back roads of Ossory. A book of testimonies and intertwined destinies that will make you laugh, because if you didn't you'd surely cry.' (Aingeala Flannery, author of 'The Amusements')

'Intimate and panoramic, a raucous gathering of voices: full of humour, pierced with longing, caught between connection and claustrophobia. Compassionate but clear-eyed, angry and elegiac, Mouthing is a portrait of our confused and often destructive yearning for grace.' (Colin Walsh, author of 'Kala')