A pregnancy leads to the unearthing of a mother and daughter’s secrets and struggles in this skilful debut novel
When Nell, a chef, agrees to try for a baby with her partner, Adrienne, a stylist for celebrity food bloggers, she anticipates failed IVF cycles and a financial and emotional toll that will soon nix the plan. Instead, Adrienne conceives after two rounds, and Nell, terrified of looming parenthood, is pitched into a reluctant reckoning with the ghosts of her teenage years in turn-of-the-millennium Ireland. A cult-like Catholic youth movement, denial of her own sexuality, teen pregnancy – all play their part, and yet even this is not the full story.
Having already caught the attention of prize juries with her short fiction, Niamh Mulvey delivers a questing first novel of significant prowess. Its title refers to the fraught changes to Ireland’s abortion legislation and its impact on women’s lives, her exploration of which is deepened by a second narrative strand: the coming-of-age of Nell’s mother, Dolores, on the fringes of the country’s nascent feminist movement in 1980s Dublin.
The Amendments by Niamh Mulvey is published by Picador (£16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
