Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way

An Observer, Irish Times, and Sunday Times Ireland 2025 Preview Selection

The Booker-nominated author of How to Build a Boat returns to western Ireland with a multi-generational family story about grief, inheritance, and learning to live with the past--and with yourself.

When Claire O'Connor leaves London to care for her dying father, she leaves everything--including her boyfriend, Tom. But when Tom ends up moving to the same small Irish town for work, he's not the only aspect of the past she must reckon with. Living in the house she grew up in, on the site where generations of her family lived, Claire couldn't be on more familiar ground, yet she struggles with uncertainty--about her relationship, and about how to manage the collision of her worlds, the child she was and the person she's been trying to become. She constructs a routine, spending days at work and evenings on the internet, inspired by influencers as she fixes up the house, but memories of the place, both her own and those of her ancestors, can't be tidied away. As old secrets come to light, Claire must confront the ways that the past creates the future--and in finding her own way, learn to face herself.

A story of grief and inheritance, homecoming and reckoning with your roots, Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way is a profoundly moving exploration of family, violence, history, and hope.