Paris Syndrome by Lucy Sweeney Byrne
256 pages
Mass market paperback
1 August 2021
ISBN: 978-1-8383126-2-6
Shortlisted:
Edge Hill Prize 2020
Kate O'Brien Award 2020
Butler Literary Award 2020
John McGahern Annual Book Prize 2019
Dalkey Literary Awards Emerging Writer 2020
I went to visit the grave of de Beauvoir and Sartre and felt as though, when I saw it, I would be truly moved. It was a sunny day in September – hot with a soft breeze, pleasantly sweaty, in the quiet scented air of Paris on a weekday afternoon. We were lightly hungover, in that drowsy warm way, where everything blurs a little, the whole day vignetting in memory even as we lived it.
In these eleven stories, debut author Lucy Sweeney Byrne invites us to experience travelling the world alone as a young woman, with all its attendant pleasures and dangers.
The staff of a boat moored in Brooklyn rebel against their tyrannical boss. A drifting writer house-sits in the wilds of Donegal in the midst of a health scare. In a Texas dive bar, two former lovers try to salvage a friendship from their intense connection. And in Mexico, a frustrated artist navigates a city both dangerous and alluring.
Whether set in New York, Oaxaca, Havana or back home in Dublin, the result is by turns sharp, fearless and heartbreaking. Laced with biting humour and devastating observations, Paris Syndrome introduces a unique literary talent.
About the Author
Lucy Sweeney Byrne is a writer of short stories, essays and poetry. Her work has appeared in Banshee, The Stinging Fly, The Dublin Review, Grist, and the anthology Stinging Fly Stories (2018). From Greystones, Co. Wicklow, she currently lives in Northumberland.
Media
Backlist Beauties: Paris Syndrome by Lucy Sweeney Byrne | Books Ireland | 4 August 2021
Best debuts of 2019: despite perennial difficulties, talent has emerged | The Irish Times | 11 December 2019
Paris Syndrome reviewed by Emily S. Cooper | The Stinging Fly | 30 September 2019
Paris Syndrome reviewed by Orlagh Doherty | RTE Culture | 25 September 2019
Paris Syndrome: Pushing boundaries to document experience | The Irish Times | 21 September 2019
Brilliant collection explores distant mysteries of the self | Irish Independent | 14 September 2019
Paris Syndrome reviewed by E.R. Murray | Writing.ie | 10 September 2019
Lucy Sweeney Byrne: Kenosis | Dublog | 9 September 2019
Listening to Music by Lucy Sweeney Byrne | Writing.ie | 9 September 2019
‘This is what comes to mind when I think of my twenties – being at sea’ | Image | 4 September 2019
Writer’s Block with Lucy Sweeney Byrne | The Gloss | 30 August 2019
Labelling literature and getting on with it: Banshee journal publishes its first book | The Irish Times | 14 May 2019