Soula Emmanuel & Ann-Marie MacDonald

Soula Emmanuel‘s novel Wild Geese introduces us to an over-educated and underpaid young Irish woman, Phoebe Forde who is finally settling into her new life in Copenhagen with her anxious dog Dolly. Almost three years into her gender transition, she has learned to move through the world carefully, savouring small moments of joy. A woman without a past can be anyone she wants – that is, until an unexpected visit from her first (and only) girlfriend brings her face-to-face with a life she thought she would never see again. In the course of a single weekend, as their old romance kindles something radical and new, Grace helps Phoebe to navigate the jagged edges of migration and alienation. Wild Geese is an intimate and moving novel of past lives, messy feelings and the desire to start afresh. With wit and warmth, it charts the dislocations and relocations, encounters, accidents and memories, and the layers of love and loss that constitute a life.

‘Soula Emmanuel’s prose is breathtaking: searingly sharp, deliciously funny, profound. Wild Geese is a beautiful and devastating read. An extraordinary debut.’ Danielle McLaughlin