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PROMISING YOUNG WOMEN

Caroline O'Donoghue

Shorlisted for the Irish Book Awards - Newcomer of the Year

Caroline O'Donoghue's debut is a gothic, darkly witty novel about sex, power, work and being a young woman in a man's world.

Jane Peters is an adrift twenty-something by day, and a world-weary agony aunt by night. But when an office party goes too far, Jane dissolves into the high-stakes world of being the Other Woman: a role she has the right advice for, but not the smarts to follow through on.

What starts out as a drunken mistake quickly unravels as Jane discovers that sex and power go hand-in-hand, and that it's hard to keep your head when you've become someone else's dirty little secret. And soon, her friendships, her sanity and even her life are put into jeopardy...

Caroline O'Donoghue is a Contributing Editor for The-Pool.com who has written for Glamour, The Irish Times and Grazia. She also co-hosts the podcast, School for Dumb Women.
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Book

Published 2018-06-01 by Virago

Comments

Poland: Swiat Ksiazki; Hungary: Central Media; UK Audio: W F Howes (at auction);

Foreign licence Client

"Anyone who enjoyed Jami Attenberg's All Grown Up or Sally Rooney's Conversations With Friends will find much to like in Caroline O'Donoghue's darkly funny novel . . . A zippy, astute read."

Review The Irish Independent

"This brilliant debut novel takes office politics to the extreme."

Review Elle

"I loved it. The writing is whipsmart and so witty and what Caroline O'Donoghue says about how women interact with men and work is fascinating. A fabulous and timely novel." —Marian Keyes

Quote Blurb

"Promising Young Women is indeed full of promise, a novel penned by a 28-year-old Corkwoman in a style that is sharp, pithy and engaging ... Promising Young Women is timely and vibrant, with O'Donoghue particularly sharp on gender relations." Read more...

Review The Irish Times

"So brilliant . . . It couldn't really be more timely . . . Compelling and illuminating . . . I highly recommend it." —Dolly Alderton, The High Low Podcast "This debut shows that Caroline O'Donoghue is one of the brightest stars in the current galaxy of young Irish writers. Promising Young Women is funny, clever, upsetting, fierce and absolutely of its time. A future classic." —Jane Casey "I loved Promising Young Women. It's like Bluebeard crossed with The Yellow Wallpaper neck-deep in zeitgeist. If Angela Carter was stuck in a soulless corporate job this would be the dark, delicious result." —Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti "Tinged with modern gothic, O'Donoghue's writing is deeply relatable and darkly comic, as she examines the interplay of power and sex in modern times. A story that couldn't be more fitting for 2018, it'll have you nodding with familiarity, thinking, laughing - and crying - as you race towards the end." —Grazia "What starts as a couple of bad drunk decisions quickly spiral into the kind of Gaslight-y, power imbalanced relationship that will be chillingly oh-so-relatable for many women." —http://wearandwhere.co.uk/best-books-2018-what-to-read-this-summer-spring/ "Promising Young Women is a book of two worlds - a light, current London of brunch and cocktails, spiraling into a gothic internal world of obsession, manipulation and fear. O'Donoghue writes the body in a hugely transporting way: if you have never felt like Jane in your own life, it will be impossible to not feel like her as you read this book - her illness and want and stasis and depression. Promising Young Women is a gothic spiral that I couldn't quite hold onto the walls of: a descent I was willing to tumble down. I loved it." —Sarah Maria Griffin

Quote Praise