Oddballs a Novel of Affections
Manchán Magan
In New Hampshire Rachel’s world falls apart when her boyfriend dies on their last day of school. Gouging her skin with blades no longer gives relief but the arrival of a stranger - claiming to be a long-lost aunt – changes her life forever. Together they travel and a tale of chance and despair turns into a weirdly compelling love story. Rachel couldn’t have known her quasi-aunt was going to end up stealing and ship-wrecking a yacht in her attempts at channelling dolphin consciousness; nor could she have guessed that the oddness of the coast-guard who’d rescue them would only be surpassed by his brother’s. Suddenly, we are in the company of some true eccentrics in a remote Irish coastal village - a deluded coke-snorting witch, a burnt-out fisherman who dances for tourists and a boy who is fixated on freeing electricity from sockets. All are nursing past hurts and only together do they have any chance of healing.
A series of outrageous adventures amidst the ring forts and tourist traps of Ireland ends with one of them plunging from the cliff-edge into the Atlantic and two more falling deeply, if unconventionally, in love.