Lazy City cover art

Lazy City

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

Lazy City

By: Rachel Connolly
Narrated by: Ruby Campbell
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £13.33

Buy Now for £13.33

Season's Savings | £0.99/mo for 3 months

£5.99/mo after 3 months - terms apply. Cancel monthly

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE

Following the death of her best friend, Erin has to get out of London. Returning home to Belfast, an au pair job provides a partial refuge from her grief and her volatile relationship with her mother. Erin spends late nights at the bar where her childhood friend Declan works. There Erin meets an American academic who is also looking to get lost. Parallel to this she reconnects with an old flame, Mikey. This brings its own web of complications.

With a startlingly fresh and original voice – jarringly funny, cranky, often hungover – Lazy City depicts the strange, meandering aftermath that follows disaster.

 Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Funny
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic reviews

"Here is a debut to savour, a brilliant and vivid new voice to guide us through the calamities of the contemporary" (KEVIN BARRY)
"Rachel Connolly is a bright new star in fiction. Connolly’s beautifully drawn portrait of modem Belfast is fresh and quietly subversive and her prose is incisive and sharp. A must read" (ELIZA CLARK)
"In the wry and compassionate Lazy City, Rachel Connolly deftly captures both the intoxicating chaos and listlessness of young adulthood, when life seems both full of possibility and impossibly elusive" (COLIN BARRETT)
"Crisp, clear-eyed and witty writing that looks bravely at complicated emotions and renders them fully real. Connolly’s characters and their flawed, human attempts at redemption will stay with me for a long time" (MONICA HEISEY)
"It’s also a novel about trauma and its aftermath: again, a common theme today, but done sophisticatedly here, with a quality of thinking rare in a debut . . . Connolly gives Erin a dry, wry voice, and one that’s frequently very funny . . . Lazy City exhibits an understanding of the importance of our homeland as the container that shapes us . . . I felt better after reading this book. Connolly is a writer in whom I have faith" (JOHN SELF)
"Connolly strikes the by now familiar tone of confusion and melancholy, but with a piercing penetration and observational clarity . . . Profound"
"It’s an elegant, funny book about that least elegant and funny thing: grief"
"A skilful, expressive and subtly subversive debut"
"Absolutely LOVED IT. A coming of age novel set in Belfast and delivered in the most beautifully clear and engaging prose" (FRANKIE BOYLE)
"Somehow both tightly controlled and highly spontaneous, Rachel Connolly's Lazy City is refreshingly open to the world. Frank, attentive, free of artifice or emotional contrivances, Connolly brings something new to any subject she shines her singular intelligence on" (NICOLE FLATTERY)
All stars
Most relevant
Sorry not for me, self indulgent at the end. From Belfast, got the idea but dull.. Truly pointless story, felt like author didn’t think about the reader… feel bad writing this, but kept listening hoping for more and it didn’t come

Just didn’t go anywhere

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this book. Beautifully written, it made me feel what it's like to live in the Belfast of today which is thankfully so different from my time. Superbly read also.

Poetic contemporary voice.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
One of the best performances I've heard on Audible; I will be seeking out other books that Ruby Campbell has brought to life.

Loved this story and the realistic- and often heartbreaking- rendering of Belfast and it's people. Erin will stay in my heart for a long time.

A beautiful exploration of love, friendship and how we live

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautifully written account of a young woman’s struggles in the aftermath of her friends death. Understated but alive with imagery and descriptions which capture the essence of everyday life.
Highly recommended +++

Stunning & original

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Perfectly, descriptive insight into an oridinary life. The book doesn't have or need dramatic events to keep you gripped. It felt like people watching but through my ears. Narratored beautifully.

Beautiful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.