Waterford Libraries are delighted to welcome author Orla Mackey to Ardkeen Library on Saturday 24th May at 3:00pm.
This continues our Writers at Waterford Libraries series.

Author and Teacher, Orla Mackey, will be in conversation discussing her writing and her debut novel Mouthing in Ardkeen Library on Saturday 24th May from 3:00pm.

Orla Mackey is a writer and teacher based in Kilkenny in Ireland. She studied English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin. Mouthing is her first novel. Narrated by several generations of villagers, Mouthing traces the fortunes of one small community from the mid-20th century to the early 21st, in a series of highly confessional and darkly hilarious monologues. The good people of Ballyrowan delight in twisting the knife, in tormenting one another, in perfecting the art of schadenfreude. And, it becomes clear, none of them are entirely reliable witnesses. As each character offers their version of ‘the truth’, upending our assumptions at every turn, we see how feuds are passed down through the generations, how families are estranged or reunited and fortunes made or lost, how strict social expectations loosen over decades (and how some things remain stubbornly unchanged). And how secret hopes and private sorrows, triumph and humiliation, pleasure and grief are all absorbed into the merciless chorus of mouthing.
Mouthing is an acerbic, unsentimental love letter to rural Irish life, where everyone knows everyone else’s business and everyone has an opinion on it – where ‘community’ is both a lifeboat and a life sentence.

This is a FREE event, but booking is essential.
Please contact Ardkeen Library on 051 849755 for bookings and further information.