Dinner Party: A Tragedy

2021 | Contemporary | Fiction & Poetry

A MAJOR 2021 DEBUT FICTION LAUNCH, THIS REMARKABLE IRISH NOVEL ABOUT THE MESSINESS OF MODERN FAMILY LIFE COMES WITH PRAISE FROM MEG MASON TO ANNE ENRIGHT

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AN IRISH TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER

'Gilmartin is clearly a writer to watch' Clare Chambers

'The search is off - here is our next read. Here is an expert writer' Meg Mason

'Sarah Gilmartin gives us terrific, complex characters and strong themes, in prose that is charged with insight' Anne Enright

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Kate has taught herself to be careful, to be meticulous.

To mark the anniversary of a death in the family, she plans a dinner party - from the fancy table settings to the perfect Baked Alaska waiting in the freezer. Yet by the end of the night, old tensions have flared, the guests have fled, and Kate is spinning out of control.

But all we have is ourselves, her father once said, all we have is family.

Set between the 1990s and the present day, from a farmhouse in Carlow to Trinity College, Dublin, Dinner Party is a dark, sharply observed debut that thrillingly unravels into family secrets and tragedy.

As the past catches up with the present, Kate learns why, despite everything, we can’t help returning home.

A brilliant coming-of-age page-turner about the complications of sibling relationships and the trauma of family secrets, perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson, Maggie O’Farrell and Anne Enright

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FURTHER PRAISE FOR DINNER PARTY

'Gilmartin's depiction of an Irish family across the decades leaves the reader in no doubt how complicated love can be' John Boyne, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies

'A fresh, confident and compelling new take on sibling dynamics and family secrets that are never far from the surface' Henrietta McKervey, author of A Talented Man

'Sarah Gilmartin is a really wonderful storyteller. A writer here to stay' Joseph O'Connor, bestselling author of Star of the Sea

'A classic Irish family saga... A blazing new talent in Irish fiction' Gavin Corbett, author of This is the Way

‘One of the best Irish debuts I've read this year. A novel of family - full of warmth, insight, tragedy and, ultimately, how to survive it all...’ Rick O’Shea
'A family gathering goes disastrously wrong in Gilmartin’s raw, emotionally searing novel about the toxicity of secrets and the inescapable lure of home.' Waterstones

'Exquisitely captured. . . beautifully paced, confident and insightful’ Daily Mail

‘Gorgeously wrought and moving’ Irish Times

‘A fine debut’ Irish Independent

‘Delicately studied’ Sunday Times, Ireland

‘A finely observed Irish debut’ Guardian

‘Gilmartin writes beautifully’ Sunday Times, Culture

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READERS LOVE DINNER PARTY

'A tense, literary page-turner'

'An incredibly poignant story of a family torn by loss and grief'

'A totally compelling read about fraught family relationships, sisterhood, loss, grief and everything in between'

Sarah Gilmartin (Author)