The Fallen

A searing account … Enraging … a detailed, thoroughgoing … superb if horrifying testament – John Banville * Guardian *
Louise Brangan takes our hazy ideas of such institutions and replaces them with the stark reality … Brangan’s remarkable book, thrumming with rage and harrowing to read, is a monument to [the] women and their suffering – Laura Hackett * Sunday Times *
Critical, informed and beautifully written, The Fallen makes the case for a genuinely transformative response to Ireland’s histories of religious incarceration – Máiréad Enright
Engrossing … it feels part novel … [Brangan] is an accomplished communicator, the reader feels like they are accompanying her as she burrows into the conditions of the soil from which the laundries grew … This meticulously researched book … helps us see more clearly. – Mary McCarthy * Irish Independent *
A terrific yet harrowing unearthing of Ireland’s shadowland. I thought I knew about the Magdalene Laundries. I was wrong. Brangan’s chronicle is limpid, eloquent and devastating. A landmark book. – Rory Carroll
Compelling, measured and deeply felt; Brangan cuts through shame and fable to tell the truth about the ‘inconvenient’ women whose lives were stolen by the Magdalene Laundries. Indispensable. – Anne Enright
powerful … authoritative, quietly passionate account … [a] fine narrative – Bel Mooney * Mail on Sunday *
Vivid … The Fallen is a highly readable and intelligently engaging account of this systemic injustice [of the Magdalene laundries], and it should prompt a wider reflection both inside and beyond Ireland on the ways in which societies can become inured to the evil all around them. – Fintan O’Toole * Times Literary Supplement *
An extraordinary gift … Within the first 15 pages of The Fallen, this book was inviting me to rethink this history, revealing these institutions and the vexed history of our country in a way I’ve never encountered. My heart was racing as I read the rest (believe it or not, this book is both an education and a page-turner). I am in awe of its meticulous scholarship, and the compelling clarity and courage of the writing. How I wish that it could be studied in every Irish school. Brava, Louise Brangan — I hope I get to meet you someday, to thank you in person for writing this powerful, urgent book. – Doireann Ní Ghríofa
Louise Brangan’s superb book The Fallen should be taught in every Irish school and university. It depicts the Magdalene Laundries in ways I’ve never encountered. She writes with clarity and an icy fury of these horrific institutions and the injustices they inflicted on Irish women … A heartbreaking, essential read by a deeply talented writer. – Doireann Ní Ghríofa * RTÉ *

Dr Louise Brangan is an Irish academic who researches injustice and punishment. She is a 2023 BBC and AHRC New Generation Thinker and winner of the 2024 Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award. She lives and works in Scotland.

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