Soldier is struggling to adapt to life as a new mother following the birth of her beloved son, Sailor. Daily, she wrestles with the choking love she feels for her son and the overwhelming urge to walk away from this new existence. With an ineffectual husband in the background, Kilroy deftly demonstrates how the burden of childcare and household management falls unfairly on the shoulders of the woman. This beautifully written - and often funny - book is a force of nature, a book that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go until the final page. I felt like a ragdoll in its jaws.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024
The Times Novel of the Year
And a Guardian, FT, Economist, Irish Times, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, Irish Independent and Independent Book of the Year
'One of the finest novels published this year.' Sunday Times
'I could not put it down.' ANNE ENRIGHT
'It's very moving, also very funny.' PAUL MURRAY
‘My favourite book I’ve read this year.' PANDORA SYKES
‘I lived and breathed beside her narrator.’ DAISY JOHNSON
In her wildly acclaimed new novel Claire Kilroy creates an unforgettable heroine, whose fierce love for her young son clashes with the seismic change to her own identity.
As her marriage strains and she struggles with questions of love, autonomy, creativity and the passing of time, an old friend makes a welcome return - but can he really offer a lifeline to the woman she used to be?
Readers adore Soldier Sailor:
***** 'About as perfect a piece of writing as you'll find.'
***** 'Unbearably tense and frequently hilarious.'
***** 'An entirely different voltage to anything I've read ... she somehow manages to verbalise *exactly* the feelings and thoughts I, certainly, had at points when I was a young mother'
***** 'This story touched me on such a visceral level.'
***** 'I was held captive by this novel ... an utterly absorbing depiction of motherhood'
***** 'I loved this book. Any woman, with or without children, will see themselves mirrored in this narrative'
***** 'An excellent, interesting and rather unforgettable creation.'
