☘️ A character-driven Irish tragicomedy threaded with wit, heartbreak, and bittersweet redemption.
Richly drawn, multidimensional characters and evocative storytelling, with thoughtful exploration of identity, family, and belonging—Bev Saludo, Goodreads reviewer
Echoing the tones of the TV series Fleabag, Shibby Magee is wry and wickedly irreverent, while reflecting the sharp, dark dynamics of The Banshees of Inisherin. For readers of Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, and Donal Ryan’s The Queen of Dirt Island, Shibby Magee offers a warmer but no less incisive portrait of a woman shaped by childhood abandonment and social prejudice, following her across two defining life stages as she struggles toward dignity, love, and self-possession.
When their mother, Vera Coffey, disappears after announcing she's a Traveller/Mincéir, Shibby and her twin sister, Dorah, are abandoned to a settled family already cracking at the seams. Under the iron rule of their viciously prejudiced grandmother, the two girls grow up on opposite tracks: Dorah, arrogant and bold; Shibby, bruised and quietly resilient.
As Shibby stumbles into adulthood, she's drawn to men who either abuse or dump her. She finds fleeting stability in the fast-paced chaos of a restaurant kitchen—but a question gnaws at her: is her future in the rooted life of the settled or on the open road to God only knows where? With the fierce support of a chosen few—Alice Duffy, housekeeper turned surrogate mother; Moochie de Barra, an affectionate stand-in for an emotionally absent father; and Kitty Dooley, a Traveller whose loyalty never wavers—Shibby begins to uncover hard truths about identity, family, and what she desperately needs to find where she truly belongs.
Full of texture and lyrical rhythm, Shibby Magee traces how the rupture of early abandonment echoes from childhood into midlife, revealing what endures, what shifts, and how patterns repeat until they are finally broken.
When we first meet Shibby, she's caught in the in-between. 'Sure, my story would read like some tragicomedy.' And, my oh my, it is'''Monique Imair, Goodreads reviewer
Genre: Literary Fiction
Richly drawn, multidimensional characters and evocative storytelling, with thoughtful exploration of identity, family, and belonging—Bev Saludo, Goodreads reviewer
Echoing the tones of the TV series Fleabag, Shibby Magee is wry and wickedly irreverent, while reflecting the sharp, dark dynamics of The Banshees of Inisherin. For readers of Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, and Donal Ryan’s The Queen of Dirt Island, Shibby Magee offers a warmer but no less incisive portrait of a woman shaped by childhood abandonment and social prejudice, following her across two defining life stages as she struggles toward dignity, love, and self-possession.
When their mother, Vera Coffey, disappears after announcing she's a Traveller/Mincéir, Shibby and her twin sister, Dorah, are abandoned to a settled family already cracking at the seams. Under the iron rule of their viciously prejudiced grandmother, the two girls grow up on opposite tracks: Dorah, arrogant and bold; Shibby, bruised and quietly resilient.
As Shibby stumbles into adulthood, she's drawn to men who either abuse or dump her. She finds fleeting stability in the fast-paced chaos of a restaurant kitchen—but a question gnaws at her: is her future in the rooted life of the settled or on the open road to God only knows where? With the fierce support of a chosen few—Alice Duffy, housekeeper turned surrogate mother; Moochie de Barra, an affectionate stand-in for an emotionally absent father; and Kitty Dooley, a Traveller whose loyalty never wavers—Shibby begins to uncover hard truths about identity, family, and what she desperately needs to find where she truly belongs.
Full of texture and lyrical rhythm, Shibby Magee traces how the rupture of early abandonment echoes from childhood into midlife, revealing what endures, what shifts, and how patterns repeat until they are finally broken.
When we first meet Shibby, she's caught in the in-between. 'Sure, my story would read like some tragicomedy.' And, my oh my, it is'''Monique Imair, Goodreads reviewer
Genre: Literary Fiction
Used availability for Carrie Kabak's Shibby Magee