Beautiful Loan

Mary Costello lives in Galway. Her short story collection, The China Factory (2012), was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award and shortlisted for an Irish Book Award. Her first novel, Academy Street (2014), won the Irish Novel of the Year Award at the Irish Book Awards and was named overall Irish Book of the Year. It was serialised on BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, the Costa First Novel Prize, the EU Prize for Literature and the Prix Littéraire des Ambassadeurs de la Francophonie en Irlande, and has been translated into several languages. Her critically acclaimed second novel, The River Capture (2019) was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards, the Kerry Novel of the Year and the Dalkey Novel Award. Her second short story collection, Barcelona (2024) was an Irish Times Bestseller.

Costello is one of Ireland's greatest writers . . . Her prose is precise and focused and, like a stiletto blade, sinks deep . . . This is a big book in a small package, about one woman's growth