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Read With Us Selection
Spring 2025

Nesting
by Roisín O’Donnell

General Information About the Book

400 pages

Published (US) February 2025, Algonquin US

Genres: literary fiction, Irish literature, psychological suspense, women’s literature

Setting: Dublin

Recognition: Women’s Prize for Fiction Nominee 2025 (long list)

Available in hardback ($25.06 Amazon), Kindle ($12.99), and audio (Audible 1 credit). The book and audiobook are generally available through local libraries and Libby, although availability and wait times vary.

“Irish writer O’Donnell debuts with a wrenching and scrupulously realistic narrative… Ultimately hopeful, the narrative steers away from melodrama, offering instead a close examination of Ciara’s daily struggles and hard-won triumphs, all of which are depicted in crystalline and lyrical prose. It’s an unforgettable portrait of an all-too-common dilemma.”
— Publishers Weekly

Join Us For the Book Discussion on Zoom

Tuesday, June 10, 2025, 7:00 pm Eastern time
Questions will also be posted on our blogs: Highly Reasonable, Carole Knits, Dancing At the Edge.

Please RSVP to receive Zoom link information by emailing Kym Mulhern (email in sidebar) by June 9, 2025. Thank you.

“Leaving is one thing, but staying away is another.
― Roisín O’Donnell in Nesting

Brief Synopsis

From Hachette Book Group

In this beautiful, urgent, and ultimately uplifting novel by a rising Irish literary star comes a heart-pounding, life-affirming story about one woman trying to leave her marriage and start over.

On a bright spring afternoon, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change everything. Grabbing an armful of clothes off the clothesline, she straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe—and that this time, when she leaves, she must stay away.

On the surface, she has a perfect life: her husband, Ryan, is a good provider, sometimes even kind and attentive, from a nice Irish family, and they have another baby on the way. But he also monitors Ciara’s every move, flies into unpredictable rages where he convinces her she can do nothing right, and has isolated her from work, friends, and her beloved family.

Was fleeing the right thing to do? With no job and no support, Ciara struggles to provide a sense of normalcy for her little girls. Facing a broken housing system, they move into a hotel room on a floor reserved for women like her, eating takeout, washing their clothes in the bathroom sink, and building a community with the other residents. Ryan, meanwhile, wages a relentless campaign to win her back, and Ciara wavers. He never hit her, after all, and don’t the girls need a stable home?

For fans of Claire Keegan and Louise Kennedy, Roisín O’Donnell’s extraordinary debut creates a devastating and suspenseful portrait of gaslighting and emotional abuse—and even better, a triumphant story about family, love, and finding a new place to nest.

Information About the Author

Bio information from Roisín O’Donnell’s website

Roisín O’Donnell is an award-winning Irish author. Roisín won the prize for Short Story of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards in 2018, and was shortlisted for the same prize in 2022. She is the author of the story collection Wild Quiet, which was longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize and shortlisted for the Kate O’Brien Award. Her short fiction has featured in The Stinging Fly, The Tangerine, the Irish Times and many other places. Other stories have been selected for major anthologies such as The Long Gaze Back, and have featured on RTÉ Radio. Her debut novel Nesting was published in January 2025 by Scriber UK and Algonquin US. It became an instant bestseller. Roisín lives near Dublin with her two children.

Book Reviews

From The Guardian, review of Nesting by Hephzibah Anderson on February 25, 2025

From The New York Times The Nightmare of Leaving an Abusive Marriage, review of Nestingby Katie J.M. Baker, February 18, 2025 (GIFT LINK)

Book Public with Yvette Benavides of Texas Public Radio (a nearly 6 minute review via YouTube; video only – nothing to watch, just a logo)

Author Interviews

Excellent written interview from The Women’s Prize with Roisín O’Donnel

The Bookshelf Book Club Live, Ryan Turbridy interviews Roisín O’Donnell in Dublin on March 8, 2025 (45 minutes)

Supplemental Resources

Characters

Ciara Fay

Her daughters Sophie and Ella, and infant son Noah

Ryan, her abusive husband

Her mother Ronah and sister Sinéad

Cathy, her friend and neighbor at The Eden

Diego, friend

Grace, Ciara’s solicitor

Veronica, her boss

Ryan’s horrible parents

Signs and Effects of Emotional Abuse

Ciara Fay, the protagonist of Roisín O’Donnell’s novel, Nesting, is the victim of emotional abuse, although she remains unaware of this for most of the book. Also referred to as psychological abuse or psychological aggression, this behavior erodes another person’s sense of self-worth until they develop a psychological dependency on their abuser. Although emotional abuse can be as damaging as physical abuse, it can be hard to detect, particularly if a person grew up in an emotionally abusive environment. Since it leaves no outward marks on the victim, those afflicted often can’t prove they’ve been abused even if they gather the strength to leave the relationship; without proof, it comes down to one person’s word against another’s.

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