Ep 4: Caitriona in Wunderland: Paula Shields speaks to Caitriona Lally

The Dingle Lit Podcast

Caitriona Lally, author of Wunderland, discusses her writing with Paula Shields.

Caitriona Lally, údar Wunderland, ag labhairt faoina cuid scríbhneoireachta le Paula Shields.

Dublin writer Caitriona Lally’s first novel, Eggshells, was published in the US by Melville House (2017) and in the UK by Borough Press (2018). Eggshells, was shortlisted for the Newcomer of the Year Award at the 2015 Irish Book Awards and the Kate O’Brien Debut Novel Award. She is the 2018 winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and the 2019 recipient of the Lannan Fiction Fellowship.

Much media attention has been directed at the fact that Lally worked as on the housekeeping team in Trinity College, where she also studied English and returned to accept the prestigious Rooney Prize. However, with the lead character in her new novel working as a cleaner, it has clearly been a source of inspiration too.

Wunderland her second novel tells the story of Roy, exiled from Ireland under dubious circumstances, and now working as a cleaner at the Wunderland miniature exhibition in Hamburg. Struggling to connect with those around him, he commits secret acts of violence against the tiny scenes and figurines on display. Then, to Roy’s palpable annoyance, his sister Gert visits, determined to uncover what really prompted his sudden move abroad and carrying a threadbare hope that she might finally figure him out.

But Gert is fighting her own demons, having checked out of her exhausting family life where she is fading amidst her husband’s deepening depression. All the while, unbeknownst to her, Roy is planning something huge in this miniature world, a statement, an act of great destruction that might just be the best thing that ever happens to them.

Paula Shields is a writer, researcher, and interviewer. An arts journalist since the 1990s, she has worked in London, Galway and Dublin in print, TV and now radio – on Arena, RTÉ’s flagship arts show.
Other professional highlights include originating and researching the IFTA award-winning RTÉ TV documentary, Fairytale of New York, in 2017, and judging the 2017 and 2018 Irish Times Theatre Awards.

Buy Wunderland from the Dingle Book Shop or from your local bookshop

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