Karen Gillece
WINNER
WINNER
Biography
Karen Gillece was born in Dublin in 1974. She studied Law at University College Dublin. Her debut novel Seven Nights In Zaragoza was published in 2005 and hailed by the critics as ‘Highly impressive and assured writing’ (Evening Herald). It was followed in 2006 byLongshore Drift which the critics described as ‘a glorious read, confirming Gillece as a fine literary writer.’ (Books Ireland). Two subsequent novels were published to critical acclaim: My Glass Heart (2007) and The Absent Wife (2008). Gillece has been described as one of Ireland’s finest emerging writers. Her short stories have been published in literary journals and magazines and broadcast on RTE Radio One and BBC Radio Four. In 2001, she was short listed for the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award. Her novels have been translated into several European languages. She is the recipient of a Literature Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland, and is currently working on her fifth novel.
Nominated book : Longshore Drift
Summary
In the blink of an eye, in a busy Brazilian marketplace, a small boy disappears without a trace… His mother’s free-living existence, travelling South America with her lover and son, comes to a sudden, brutal end. Two years later, broken from searching for her missing son, Nacio, and desolate at her lover’s departure, Lara returns to her childhood home on the southwest coast of Ireland. As she struggles to come to terms with her loss, Lara once again befriends Christy, her childhood sweetheart, who finds himself increasingly drawn to her bohemian nature. But what starts as an interest in her past grows into an obsession. As Lara tries to piece her life back together, never losing hope for Nacio, Christy begins to fall apart. Longshore Drift is a tale of passion and betrayal, of the consequences of searching for love in all the wrong places, and of a heartbroken mother’s unswerving conviction that her child will be returned to her – even when all hope seems to be gone.
Excerpts
Related publications
EUPL Retrospective Box
Various authors
EUPL Anthology 2009
Various authors