Malarky

Anakana Schofield is an Anglo-Irish writer of fiction, essays, and literary criticism. Malarky, her first novel, won the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, was selected as a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick, and was shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. It has also been named on sixteen different Best Books of the Year lists.

'Quirky, raucous, and utterly unconventional.' Reader's Digest 'Schofield's richest gift is for spirited dialogue which crackles with humor and energy in this blackly funny, half mad tale ... the most distinctive novel of its kind I've read in a decade.' Irish Central 'Delightfully offbeat ... Schofield shows a deft - and altogether welcome - comic touch ... One of the season's best reads.' The National Post 'Dead-on, with pitch-perfect speech patterns of rural Ireland ... Some of this comically laconic dialogue and inner chatter calls to mind the great works of comic absurdity by Flann O'Brien.' The Globe and Mail 'Hums with electric wit and linguistic daring. The novel traverses darkly comic territory with intelligence and poise, relating the story of an unnamed narrator whose resilience in the face of life's disappointments will stay with readers long after the verbal pyrotechnics have dissipated. Anakana Schofield is a true original, and her novel is a delight.' Quill & Quire 'A glorious, breathless romp through the mind of an immensely likeable woman.' Slightly Bookist 'This is a brilliant book. Finely drawn, deceptively muscular, and pulsing with warm intelligence and wit.' The Rover 'A miracle ... move over Molly Bloom, Anakana Schofield has mastered the hundreds of voices that make up one person, and the negotiations, confusions, and occasional consolations that transpire among them.' Little Star 'Potent and fresh ... In certain moments, we are not so far from Beckett's Molloy - Our Woman comes close to enlivening not only the political and the personal but also the human.' San Francisco Chronicle 'One of the most vivid fictional creations to come along in years.' Montreal Gazette 'Anakana Schofield's brilliantly bizarre debut novel follows a middle aged woman as she rolls up her sleeves and charges into a late-in-life sexual awakening.' Flare Magazine 'Malarky is an alternately beautiful, brilliant, profound, poignant and comedic work of literary fiction.' Winnipeg Free Press 'Schofield's brilliant storytelling in Malarky is among the most engaging I've ever encountered.' The Longest Chapter 'This is a funny, raunchy, moving read, written in beautiful, brave prose.' The Next Best Book Blog 'Malarky is a journey beyond the limits of love, an equally sad and hilarious portrait of motherhood. Malarky is like nothing else, and what everything should be.' Pickle Me This 'Malarky is a wacky, dead serious book, and what stands out more than anything is its freshness in a sea of same-old, same-old novels ... has all the makings of being a big book of the year, if the hype should build. And it should.' Telegraph Journal 'The novel is a challenging read, but for all the right reasons.' Vancouver Sun 'I laughed, I cried ... The immensely gifted Anakana Schofield's vivid study of a middle-aged Irish housewife's nervous breakdown has a huge heart and a fierce brain; Malarky is, by a wide margin, the most memorable fiction I've read this year.' Georgia Straight 'With great aplomb and shite-smeared wellies, Malarky stomps squarely into the territory of Flann O'Brien, Samuel Beckett, Roddy Doyle, and Martin McDonagh ... A smashing debut.' Review of Contemporary Fiction 'Electrifying.' Edmonton Journal, 'Five Favorite Reads of 2012'