Eggshells

Book by Caitriona Lally was announced as winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 2018 for emerging Irish writers at Trinity College Dublin.

“I WANT A friend called Penelope. When I know her well enough, I’ll ask her why she doesn’t rhyme with antelope.”
― Caitriona Lally, Eggshells

“I'm uncomfortable with verbs; they expect too much.”
― Caitriona Lally, Eggshells

“Summer has landed overnight, and the street is full of arms and legs that are not usually seen; they seem detached from their owners like so many piles of limbs in the death scene of a war film.”
― Caitriona Lally, Eggshells

“My ears have been saturated with other people's works recently; today I will hear only my own.”
― Caitriona Lally, Eggshells

“Her voice sounds like it's under the sea already, and when I look at her face, it's full of bliss and waves.”
― Caitriona Lally, Eggshells

“My lone silence has the quality of marshmallows, padded with sugary dough, but other people's silence is punctured with pointy, jagged blades.”
― Caitriona Lally, Eggshells

“Vivian, it's fine. Do you keep a diary?'
'I used to,' I say, 'but it took too long to write everything I thought or saw or did. I couldn't go anywhere without my diary, and my sister got annoyed when I wrote down everything she said. But if I didn't do that, it wasn't a true diary.'
'It's all or nothing with you, isn't it, Vivian?'
I sense she's going to laugh again, so I speak hastily.
'There are boxes of my old diaries in the attic, but they're so tiring to read. It's like reliving a whole part of my old life while living in my current life. And I've forgotten most of what's written, so what's the point of living these details in the first place if I'm not going to remember them?”
― Caitriona Lally, Eggshells

“I like that the makers of Arabic didn't insist upon a 'U' after a 'Q': 'Muhaqqaq' looks fearless, undaunted, unencumbered by 'U's.”
― Caitriona Lally, Eggshells

“If hobbits live in Middle Earth, then every third person in Middle Third should be a hobbit.”
― Caitriona Lally, Eggshells