Acts of Desperation

Please believe the hype … Nolan’s book describes a very particular experience and it does so with rare intelligence and courage … [Her] headlong, fearless prose feels like salt wind on cracked lips. You wince and you thrill. * Sunday Times *
Deeply felt and seriously, spikily intelligent … The millennial author everyone should be watching right now. * Daily Telegraph *
Tapping into the zeitgeist comes one of the books of 2021: Megan Nolan’s Acts of Desperation … a heartbreaking-but-resonating portrait of one woman’s savage mistreatment of herself in the name of love. * Stylist *
There is so much to admire in this extremely impressive first novel, which captures an intense experience with clarity and style. It is fully itself, and flawless in its way. * Guardian *
Nigh-on impossible not to devour. * Daily Mail *
[A] fearless debut … Amusing, relatable, crushing … Nolan’s gutsiest achievement is reclaiming the female experience of love and desire in all its shades from lighter literature, making of it something frequently unpretty yet intensely vital. * Observer *
Oh my god! Such brilliant writing about female desire, co-dependant love, the ownership that’s taken of female bodies and how it corrupts our relationship to them. I identified hugely. Incredibly honest and visceral. – Marian Keyes
It’s impossible to tear yourself away … This is more than simple victimhood. This is a hard frank look at something uglier and more discomforting … I couldn’t stop reading Acts of Desperation. * The Times *
A mesmerising debut that is a masterpiece from the opening sentence to the bitter end, and everything in between. * Independent 5 new books to read in lockdown *
I loved this book … It triumphs because it takes a risk … We find ourselves hurtling towards an ending that is surprising, satisfying, subversive … Deeply affecting. * Irish Independent *

Megan Nolan was born in 1990 in Waterford, Ireland and is currently based in New York. Her essays and reviews have been published by the New York Times, White Review, Guardian and Frieze amongst others. For her debut novel, Acts of Desperation, Nolan was the recipient of a Betty Trask Award, shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Ordinary Human Failings was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and shortlisted for the Nero Book Award for Fiction, the Gordon Burn Prize and the RSL Encore Award.

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