Official website of Michèle Forbes

                  A Sunday Times Book of the Year!

edith and oliver

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From the author of Ghost  Moth, one of the most acclaimed debuts of 2014, comes a stunning second novel 

    EDITH & OLIVER

published by W&N, Orion 

Edith was born into a different world. But her rebellious nature brought her to the seedy glamour of the music hall.

Oliver is an illusionist with ambition. He wants to tour the world, to pioneer ground-breaking illusions.

History and fate have other ideas.

When Edith and Oliver meet they fall headlong in love. But their children arrive as the world begins to change, as cinemas crowd the high street and the draw of the music hall wanes. What follows is a struggle: against the entropy of marriage, against the march of time, and against Oliver’s flaws – flaws that may cost them everything.

              

                 “A writer who is not afraid to address the so-called                                            ordinary lives of real human beings.”                                                                     John Banville

 

                                    Catch Michèle being interviewed about ‘Edith & Oliver’ by                                                                  Eve Jackson on Encore France 24 HERE

 

   


                 

Photo Ethan Forbes-Roe 2017

 

Biographical Note Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Michèle Forbes is an award-winning theatre, television and film actress. Her first novel, Ghost Moth, was published in 2013 to great critical acclaim and Forbes was shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, for First Book Award at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival and  selected as one of The Observer’s Seven Debut Novels That Will Make A Splash in 2014.  She has recently been nominated for the Prix Littéraire des Ambassadeurs de la Francophonie en Irlande – Ireland Francophonie Ambassador’s Award 2017. She lives in Dalkey, Dublin.  Read More                                        

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“A bountiful river of lovely images, fresh and perfect, a triumphant story both familiar and strange. A stellar debut.”   Sebastian Barry, author of Days Without End

“This slow burning tale is both guileless and deeply—sometimes erotically—charged. The writing soaks up the world, and thrills to the beauty of it. Children, bees, milk, the sea, all are wonderfully rendered and alive on the page. Katherine Bedford—so ordinary and so passionate—is a heroine to treasure.”  Anne Enright , author of The Forgotten Waltz and The Gathering

“Clever, unpredictable, beautifully written and crafted – Ghost Moth stayed with me for a long time after I’d finished reading the final, sad, wonderful page.”  Roddy Doyle, author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and The Commitments

  Listen to Michèle Forbes with Donal Ryan on Guardian podcast

Listen to an interview with Michèle Forbes on ABC Radio Australia


 

The French translation of Ghost Moth, ‘Phalene Fantome’, was shortlisted for the FIRST EUROPEAN NOVEL AWARD at Chambery’s Festival du Premier Roman 2015, the PRIX ESCAPADES 2017, nominated for the French Booksellers NOVEL DISCOVERY SELECTION for Les Petits Mots, and most recently has been nominated for the Prix Littéraire des Ambassadeurs de la Francophonie en Irlande – IRELAND FRANCOPHONIE AMBASSADORS’ LITERARY AWARD 2017. The translator is Anouk Neuhoff and the publisher Les Editions de Table Ronde.