Orchid & the Wasp cover art

Orchid & the Wasp

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Orchid & the Wasp

By: Caoilinn Hughes
Narrated by: Caoilinn Hughes
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About this listen

A dazzlingly original debut set in Dublin, London and New York, exploring the ethical underbelly of contemporary society through the coming-of-age of an utterly singular heroine: Gael Foess.

Orchid & the Wasp brings to life the charged, compulsive voice of Gael Foess - daughter of a self-interested investment banker and a once-formidable orchestral conductor, and sister to a vulnerable younger brother - as she strives to build a life raft in the midst of economic and familial collapse. Moving by wits alone, Gael cuts a swathe through the leather-lined, coke-dusted social clubs of London, the New York gallery scene and birth-throes of the Occupy movement.

Written in heart-stoppingly vivid prose, Orchid & the Wasp is a modern-day Bildungsroman that chews through sexuality, class and contemporary politics and crackles with joyful fury and anarchic gall. It examines how we can fail our loved ones by what we want for them; what makes for a good life; what we are owed and what we must earn; and how events in our lives can turn us into people we never intended to be. A first novel of astonishing talent, Orchid & the Wasp announces Caoilinn Hughes as one of the most exciting literary writers working today.

©2018 Caoilinn Hughes (P)2018 Audible Ltd
Coming of Age Dark Humour Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Urban Women's Fiction World Literature Heartfelt Superhero

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All stars
Most relevant
I'm only part way through but this is one of the most interesting audiobooks I can remember. Gael is a brilliant character. The author is a poet and this is apparent in the prose, but isn't over egged. Very well narrated. I hope this book gets more notice, it deserves it.

Fantastic

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