A Memoir

Hopscotch

Poignant, funny memoir of an unconventional family in suburban Dublin, written by Irish Times columnist.

Quite brilliant; beautifully, cleverly observed; funny, heart-breaking.

Brilliantly written and absolutely hilarious. Hilary is an extraordinary writer and Hopscotch is destined to become a classic of the form.

The best book I read last year. A heartbreaking story masterfully written.

Hilary Fannin carries the reader deep into the mind of a little girl baffled by the world around in her candid, intoxicating memoir . . . a lucid, crystalline and intoxicating style. Hopscotch tells a private story with candour and exactitude, love and understanding, artfulness and wit.

Hopscotch captures the joys, fears and bewilderments of a 1960s Dublin childhood through the wonderful prism of an innocent young girl’s puzzled attempts to navigate the muddy waters of her parents’ world. It is written with a deft sleight of hand that makes it wonderfully funny and moving.

Completely enthralling; poignant, vivid, laugh-out-loud moments.

The most moving memoir I’ve read since Nuala O Faolain’s Are You Somebody? A mesmeric, evocative tour de force.

Truly extraordinary and lyrical prose . . . a hymn of boundless love and gratitude and redemption . . . this rather wonderful book.

Hopscotch is searingly honest, hilariously funny and utterly memorable.

Consistently funny, frequently touching and full of passages studded with sharp observation, impressive psychological insight and surreal invention . . . a small masterpiece.

HILARY FANNIN is an award-winning playwright and newspaper columnist. Born in Dublin, where she still lives, she was writer in association at the Abbey Theatre in its centenary year. Her plays, including Mackerel Sky, Doldrum Bay, Famished Castle and an adaptation of Racine’s Phaedra, have been performed in Ireland, London, Europe and North America. She writes a weekly column for the Irish Times and was awarded Irish Columnist of the Year in 2019. Her memoir, Hopscotch, was published to critical acclaim in 2015. The Weight of Love is her first novel.

‘Quite brilliant; beautifully, cleverly observed; funny, heart-breaking.’ – Roddy Doyle 
 
Hilary is four, not yet five, and she has a mother and a father and an older brother and sisters. She even has a name at home – Billy – that is different from her written-down name. But now that she is in Low Babies in the local convent school, it seems Hilary has something else called responsibilities. 
The world is a changing place. Hilary’s parents, themselves products of a country bathed in sanctifying grace, and presided over by leather-strapped Christian Brothers, wimpled nuns, and a strictly ingrained moral code, start to question their own life choices. As she begins to mature, Hilary’s perspective shifts from a confusing mosaic of half-understood conversations, bizarre rules and surreal religious symbolism, to a growing awareness of the eccentricities of the adult world around her, where money is tight, ideas are unorthodox and where living life to the full is the goal. 
As her parents’ unconventional lifestyle rubs against the grain of a pervasive Catholic society, the cracks begin to appear: siblings are expelled from school; final demands litter the hallway; and Hilary discovers the truth about the always-present but never-to-be-mentioned golden-haired lady. 
Hopscotch is a funny, poignant and beautifully written memoir, a spellbinding meditation on innocence, love and memory itself.

Hilary Fannin

This is heartache for grown ups. The Weight of Love pulls you in and does not let go.

Beautiful and painful, exquisitely written, shot through with nostalgia for our earlier selves.

Fannin writes with acute insight on loss, grief, and the ways in which time fold in our lives ... We are not long into 2020, but Fannin's novel is already likely to be a serious contender for one of the books of the year

Incredibly beautiful, aching; it feels like it’s being whispered to me. The story unfolds so naturally in prose at once delicate and powerful, hypnotic. Gorgeous.

A masterful dissection of romantic love ... This novel is still revealing new unexpected depths until the final page

An absorbing, cleverly structured, yet very human novel. It is hard to accept that it is Hilary Fannin's first

An exquisitely written, deeply moving novel about the agonies of love, intimacy, and the harm we inflict upon one another in the name of romance.

A tender, beautiful novel that sparkles with humour

It’s a gorgeous read; delicate, well crafted, full of clever insights into relationships, loss and the human condition of the calibre you might expect from Anne Enright.

Fannin proves the efficacy of fiction as a medium for truth - and in doing so, exceeds all expectations.

Intimate and moving … It is all in there: family love, friendship and romantic love. Hilary looks at these universal themes with microscopic precision.

This beautifully written and intimate story is profoundly moving

A beautifully written account of a love triangle that feels so real I could have lived it myself

Gorgeous, romantic, sad, melancholy, wise, amazing. I really recommend it ... One of the best books of the year

Wise and beautifully bittersweet, The Weight of Love explores how we can be haunted by our own ghosts and the ghosts of others, by versions of our younger selves and the lives we failed to lead

The Weight of Love left me with a feeling I so rarely get with fiction - a sort of drunkenness, an ease. I sank into it and when I got to the end, I wanted to turn it over and start again

Wonderful ... A novel about lots of different forms of love ... Everyone should buy it

Beautifully written ... profoundly moving.

'This is heartache for grown ups. The Weight of Love pulls you in and does not let go' ANNE ENRIGHT 
 
'Beautiful and painful, exquisitely written, shot through with nostalgia for our earlier selves' MARIAN KEYES 
 
London, 1996. Robin and Ruth meet in the staff room of an East London school. Robin, desperate for a real connection, instantly falls in love. Ruth, recently bereaved and fragile, is tentative. 
 
 When Robin introduces Ruth to his childhood friend, Joseph, a tortured and talented artist, their attraction is instant. Powerless, Robin watches on as the girl he loves and his best friend begin a passionate and turbulent affair. 
 
 Dublin 2017. Robin and Ruth are married and have a son, Sid, who is about to emigrate to Berlin. Theirs is a marriage haunted by the ghost of Joseph and as the distance between them grows, Robin makes a choice that could have potentially devastating consequences. 
 
 The Weight of Love is a beautiful exploration of how we manage life when the notes and beats of our existence, so carefully arranged, begin to slip off the stave. An intimate and moving account of the intricacies of marriage and the myriad ways in which we can love and be loved. 
 
'Delicate, powerful, hypnotic' DONAL RYAN 
 
'Fannin's novel is already likely to be a serious contender for one of the books of the year' SUNDAY TIMES

Hilary Fannin

Praise for The Weight of Love

**This is heartache for grown ups. The Weight of Love pulls you in and does not let go.**

Beautiful and painful, exquisitely written, shot through with nostalgia for our earlier selves.

Fannin writes with acute insight on loss, grief, and the ways in which time fold in our lives ... We are not long into 2020, but Fannin's novel is already likely to be a serious contender for one of the books of ...

**This is heartache for grown ups. The Weight of Love pulls you in and does not let go.**

Beautiful and painful, exquisitely written, shot through with nostalgia for our earlier selves.

Fannin writes with acute insight on loss, grief, and the ways in which time fold in our lives ... We are not long into 2020, but Fannin's novel is already likely to be a serious contender for one of the books of ...

**This is heartache for grown ups. The Weight of Love pulls you in and does not let go.**

Beautiful and painful, exquisitely written, shot through with nostalgia for our earlier selves.

Fannin writes with acute insight on loss, grief, and the ways in which time fold in our lives ... We are not long into 2020, but Fannin's novel is already likely to be a serious contender for one of the books of ...

Books by Hilary Fannin

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