Oona

Oona, a book without an ‘o’, is an ingeniously crafted marvel’ -- Anne Cunningham * Irish Independent *
An intriguing, innovative story of loss and acceptance. -- Sarah Gilmartin * Irish Times *
The novel (with the exception of its title and one short intermezzo intentionally headed ‘– o –’) is wholly bereft of the round vowel, whose hermetic glyph can articulate surprise, lyric utterance, sexual pleasure and, of course, elegiac grief. -- Tom Treacy * Totally Dublin *
Oona is exactly the type of book to read if you want to restore your faith in writing and new and experimental approaches to fiction. Its beautiful descriptions of place and sparkling use of colour are so incredibly vibrant it feels at times more like a painting than a novel. A plot that sounds very simple and familiar, what you could call a fairly standard coming-of-age story, becomes an original and very special read in Lyons’s masterful hands. -- Laura King * Books Ireland *
Calculated though its constraint may be, dictatorial in its Oulipian demands, there is nothing cold or soulless whatsoever in Oona: it is all verve, all vitality. -- Mackenzie Warren * Splice *

‘A virtuoso work … a delight to read’ —EOIN MCNAMEE ‘Oona is bildungsroman unlike any other, a documentation of an artist’s growth in which each lacuna, each silence, and each erasure reveals the depth of its subject. Exceptional.’ —DOIREANN NÍ GHRÍOFA ‘In a voice and tone that never falters, Alice Lyons has delivered something extraordinary. On the rare occasions I noticed the absence of the letter ‘o’, it was to briefly marvel at the care and innovation it has taken to pull this off. For all her struggles, Oona fizzes with life and hope.’ —LOUISE KENNEDY ‘A study of grief and recovery through the lens of art, colour, and landscape. Lyons charts a compelling journey towards wholeness, full of vivid imagery and astute observations. Moving and wise, few portraits of grief are so life-affirming.’ —JESSICA TRAYNOR

‘A virtuoso work … a delight to read’ —EOIN MCNAMEE ‘Oona is bildungsroman unlike any other, a documentation of an artist’s growth in which each lacuna, each silence, and each erasure reveals the depth of its subject. Exceptional.’ —DOIREANN NÍ GHRÍOFA ‘In a voice and tone that never falters, Alice Lyons has delivered something extraordinary. On the rare occasions I noticed the absence of the letter ‘o’, it was to briefly marvel at the care and innovation it has taken to pull this off. For all her struggles, Oona fizzes with life and hope.’ —LOUISE KENNEDY ‘A study of grief and recovery through the lens of art, colour, and landscape. Lyons charts a compelling journey towards wholeness, full of vivid imagery and astute observations. Moving and wise, few portraits of grief are so life-affirming.’ —JESSICA TRAYNOR