About the Event:
EPIC is proud to welcome emigrant author Róisín Lanigan to the museum to discuss her latest novel, I Want to Go Home But I'm Already There as part of our new ‘Eíre to Everywhere: Stories without Borders’ lecture series. We will explore the themes of loneliness, loss, belonging and the concept of ‘home’.
The discuss will be followed by a Q & A with the audience and a chance to have your copy signed by the author.
About the Author:
Róisín Lanigan is an editor and writer based in London and Belfast. Her work has appearedin i-D, VICE, The Atlantic, New Statesman, The Fence and Prospect, amongst otherpublications. She was longlisted for the Curtis Brown First Novel Prize in 2019, and won theBlue Pencil Agency First Novel Award in 2020. I Want to Go Home But I'm Already There is her first novel.
About the Novel:
Renting is a nightmare.
Áine should be feeling happy with her life. She’s just moved in with Elliot. Their new flat is in an affluent neighbourhood, surrounded by bakeries, yoga studios and organic vegetable shops. They even have a garden. And yet, from the moment they move in, Áine can't shake the sense that there's something not quite right about the place...
It's not just the humourless estate agent and nameless landlord: it's the chill that seeps through the draughty windows; the damp spreading from the cellar door; the way the organic fruit and veg never lasts as long as it should. And most of all, it’s the upstairs neighbours, whose very presence makes peaceful coexistence very difficult indeed.
The longer Áine spends inside the flat - pretending to work from home; dissecting messages from the friends whose lives seem to have moved on without her - the less it feels like home. And as Áine fixates on the cracks in the ceiling, it becomes harder to ignore the cracks in her relationship with Elliott...
Endorsements:
Absorbing and eerie ... Full of wry observations about the status markers of modern life ...Lanigan has a beautiful and distinct writing style, and her book is a hugely enjoyable portrait of the horrors of renting in London - Sunday Times
... like most horror stories, [I Want To Go Home But I'm Already There] has allegorical undertones - postcolonial tensions, the fragility of mental and physical health, the loneliness of an unstable relationship, and more, all simmer beneath the surface - Irish Times
Róisín Lanigan's brilliant new novel reinvents the haunted house genre for the age of forever-renters - RTÉ
There is much to love about this book: its humour, its use of mould (there isn’t enough mould in fiction) and its themes of inequality (Áine’s childhood respiratory issues are relevant). It’s a brilliant satire of London’s horrific housing market - Guardian
