Cover reveal: Penelope Unbound by Mary Morrissy
310 pages
Paperback
5 October 2023
ISBN: 978-1-8383126-8-8
Happy Bloomsday all! We can’t think of a better day to reveal the cover for the next book from Banshee Press, forthcoming on 5 October 2023: Penelope Unbound by Mary Morrissy, a novel about the alternative life of Norah Barnacle.
On their arrival in Trieste in 1904, James Joyce left Norah Barnacle outside a railway station while he went to scare up money. He got embroiled in a fight with a couple of sailors and was locked up for his troubles. A penniless Norah was left alone for almost an entire day and night sitting on their suitcases at the station in a city where she knew no one and where she didn’t speak the language.
In real life, Norah waited for him. This novel asks – what if she hadn’t?
In Penelope Unbound, one of our greatest living novelists weaves a spellbinding speculative history. By unhooking Norah from her famous husband, Morrissy gives her a compelling new voice, with heartbreak and humanity all her own. Sensual, inventive and uproariously funny, Penelope Unbound reimagines a Joycean heroine for the 21st century.
Dublin-born Mary Morrissy is the author of three novels, Mother of Pearl, The Pretender and The Rising of Bella Casey, and two collections of stories, A Lazy Eye and Prosperity Drive. Her short fiction has been anthologised widely and two of her novels have been nominated for the Dublin Literary Award. Her debut, Mother of Pearl, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award and she’s won a Hennessy Award and a Lannan Foundation Award for her fiction. A member of Aosdána, she is a journalist, a teacher of creative writing and a literary mentor. She blogs on art, fiction and history at marymorrissy.com.
Penelope Unbound was designed by Anna Morrison and is now available for pre-order!
