Penelope Unbound

"...a novel of great brilliance and inventiveness...Penelope Unbound is a masterwork" — John Banville, The Observer; "Here is a treat for admirers of James Joyce and his enigmatic wife, Nora Barnacle...laugh-aloud funny as well as taking some imaginative leaps that will literally take your breath away" — Alannah Hopkin, The Examiner; “The Norah Barnacle we find in Penelope Unbound moves through familiar spaces, but she occupies them in fresh, provocative ways. Mary Morrissy, one of the brightest, most original stars in the firmament of Irish writing, gives us a vivacious, wise Norah who takes charge of her destiny. Morrissy’s great imaginative powers and shockingly good turn of phrase make a lively, dazzling journey of Norah’s re-imagined lifepath.” — Nuala O'Connor; “Penelope Unbound weaves a moving, imaginative, surprising, and hugely involving alternative history: the life of Norah Barnacle without James Joyce. The language toys with Joyce’s rhythms, but is distinctively its own – it’s a language that belongs to Mary Morrissy’s compellingly reimagined Norah, who is, like this novel itself, funny, richly perceptive and startlingly alive. A wonderful, fascinating book.” — Kevin Power; “A new Mary Morrissy is always a treat. She’s a master of capturing each of her character’s unique voice and Penelope Unbound is Morrissy at the height of her game: attentive to the details of her story, linguistically playful and captivating at every turn. This novel felt like stepping into a familiar story through a very different door.” — Jan Carson; “A dazzling portrait of Norah Barnacle, resplendent in a reimagined life freed from the shadow of her famous husband. And what a character she is: spirited, funny, lively, intelligent, brought to vivid life in sparkling, sensuous prose by a novelist at the height of her powers.”— Lisa Harding; “Penelope Unbound is a scintillating, audacious, and engrossing novel. It wittily deconstructs the lives of James Joyce and Norah Barnacle and gives them back to us in vivid and freshly conceived form. Yet, in imagining a different and independent trajectory for Norah, it shows how her complex love for Joyce still endures and how Dublin permanently harbours and enshrines his fiction.”— Anne Fogarty