‘…the prose is measured and graceful, rich with delectable turns of phrase and vivid descriptions that seem to paralyse time… Over the past decade, Miss Ní Chonchúir has proven herself a prolific and diverse talent.’
Billy O’Callaghan, The Irish Examiner
‘…Ní Chonchúir, like Frida Kahlo, documents female lives in ripe, uncompromising detail. I was also reminded of Edna O’Brien to whose groundbreaking work most Irish women writers owe a debt. Ní Chonchúir’s precisely made but deliciously sensual stories mark her as a carrier of the flame.’
Cathy Dillon, The Irish Times
‘…Ní Chonchúir…immediately arrests the reader’s attention with jolting declarations, oddities and intriguingly out-of-place ideas…A short, satisfying read, Mother America offers shards of humour and solace in a collection primarily concerned with the complexities of love…in the difficult task of writing about sex, the author shows particular flair.’
Eithne Shortall, The Sunday Times
“The themes of loneliness and consolation re-emerge in many of the stories in Mother America, none more so than ‘When the Hearse Goes By’, a powerful examination of grief and succour…This collection is a neat and rigorous examination of character, and while it may not be as overwhelmingly groundbreaking as Mansfield or O’Connor, the detail and skill evident in each story merits as much acclaim.”
Éadaoín Lynch
“The stories in Mother America, a brand-new collection of writing from one of Ireland’s young stars, are emotionally, locationally, and temporally diverse, and Ní Chonchúir’s prose is both simple to read and beautiful to contemplate.”
Zach Hively
Alone at the Microphone
“The descriptions in these stories are rounded, lush and womanly. Flowers, sex in Paris, betrayal in Frida Kahlo’s life, the promises of children and the remains of such promises drop as dead as leverets from the split bellies of pregnant hares.
Ní Chonchúir’s stories … delineate the truth – that wishes for happy endings lead to fragile and transparent fates through which the past creeps back to take root.”
Órfhlaith Foyle
Author of SOMEWHERE IN MINNESOTA
