As You Were

Comic, heartfelt and full of characters who walk off the page, it feels like Irish writing has been waiting a long time for a voice as unique and insistent as Elaine Feeney. A superb, unforgettable debut. * Sinéad Gleeson *
As You Were is an absolute tour de force: raw, sharp and wild. Elaine Feeney writes with such love for and understanding of her characters. It’s the literary equivalent of a stiff drink beside a warm fire: a book that will rattle you before it settles you. * Lisa McInerney *
As You Were was just (effing) amazing. Brimful of brilliant characters – what an exciting, visceral, poetic read. I adored the lack of sentimentality. Sinéad Hynes is complex and excellently realised – a role model too, for I found her (sometime) selfishness thrillingly refreshing. As You Were gives permission to Irish women to put themselves first, and considering what we've come from, that's seismic. Elaine Feeney is such a talent. I LOVED it! * Marian Keyes *
A truly original voice. Raw, urgent and uncompromising about the lengths we go to to conceal hurt, deception, psychic pain... A brilliant portrayal of the kindness of strangers, the kinship of women and the heartbreak of married love. * Mary Costello *
'An absolutely fabulous book’ * Kevin Barry *
As You Were is a powerful openhearted novel with an authentic visceral voice. It is a thrilling, hugely enjoyable read and a quite brilliant fiction debut from this superbly gifted poet. * Mike McCormack *
Outraged, compassionate, and very very funny, Elaine Feeney is a ferociously good writer. * Claire Louise Bennett *
Elaine Feeney's voice is utterly singular, thrilling, unpredictable, a continuous pleasure. It seems trite in the face of such a captivating and original novel to say that we're lucky to have her - but we are. * Nicole Flattery *
Beautiful, torrential, vital, Elaine Feeney's debut novel aches with all the comedy and sorrow of how it feels to be alive now. * Conor O'Callaghan *
Rendered with searing honesty, biting humour, and most importantly of all perhaps, layers of compassion that creep up on you like a fragile child, Elaine Feeney's As You Were is a comet’s tail of loss, regret, hurt, damage, sass, wit, and courage; an artfully braided paean to resilience, to not giving up, to the small ways we find to bandage our broken selves. We should be grateful for this wonderful debut. * Alan McMonagle *
A beautifully manic soliloquy to life’s tickly pleasures and wacky distresses. What an absolute kick box of a novel. Just wow. * June Caldwell *
I was totally gripped: the writing thrums with originality. Fierce, astonishing, perceptive - I loved As You Were!' * Danielle McLaughlin *
[A] blistering flow of wild, full-on language and gritty life-story telling -- Kerry Fowler * Sainsbury's Magazine *
Feeney's voice is at once fresh and sharp, with an eye for the comedy of existential dread -- Stephanie Merritt * Observer *
Extraordinary... This is writing that often reaches into your heart and clutches it * Evening Standard *
Inventive, entertaining and utterly original * i Newspaper *
A powerful novel... Fierce and insistent, its stories continue to burn brightly long after reading * Irish Times *
Exhilarating... While As You Were may seem at first glance to be a novel about facing death, it is gloriously full of life * Irish Independent *
[As You Were] is bursting with tenderness... It's a book that will stay with me for a long time -- Douglas Stuart * Evening Standard, *Books of the Year* *
As You Were is a revelation in the secret shames and everyday pain that women keep hidden. It is bursting with wonderful moments of unguarded intimacy... It manages to be funny, sad and absolutely irrepressible all at the same time -- Douglas Stuart * Herald, *Books of the Year* *
Feeney has published three collections of poetry and there's something lyrical in As You Were's pin-sharp descriptions... sensory descriptions are skilfully linked to Sinéad's interior life... [and] Feeney has a remarkable ability to move between registers... As You Were takes the reins, exercising an elastic grip, shortening and lengthening, tautening and loosening and, finally, letting go -- Naoise Dolan * London Review of Books *
A revelation with regard to the secret shames and everyday pain that women keep hidden. IT is bursting with wonderful moments of unguarded intimacy between three Irish women who are stuck on a hospital ward together -- Douglas Stuart * Observer, *Books of the Year* *