Feb 06 2025 23 mins 1
We catch up with Elaine Garvey to discuss her wonderful debut novel The Wardrobe Department. Set in the early 2000s and written with a disarming first hand delivery, it is the story of Mairéad, a young Irish theatre professional who’s come to London in a bid to pursue a career backstage. Caught between an acute homesickness for the Ireland of her imagination and a gruelling work life, Mairéad is adrift and unable to make a home in either place. When an urgent call to return home comes she is forced both to reckon with her past and choose her present.
At its heart The Wardrobe Department is a deft exploration of power and the cost of breaking free. A recognition of damage handed from one generation to the next and a refusal to be silent. An acceptance that resolution is often ill-fitting and unexpected but resolution nonetheless.
‘Elaine Garvey is a tremendous new talent in Irish writing - I’m certain the reader will recognise within half a page that she is the real thing.’
Kevin Barry
‘At once familiar and surprising, knotty and tender, tough and beguiling.’
Lisa McInerney
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