Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin’s debut novel follows Jay, raised devoutly Catholic in Ireland and now living with her girlfriend in London, as she discovers that her older brother Ferdia is being considered for canonisation. This forces her to confront her past.

Ní Mhaoileoin’s writing is excellent and I had to stop reading multiple times in order to take it all in. The inclusion of small visual details to enhance the whole is carried out masterfully (eg. the chairs at the disastrous family dinner, Clem’s jackets). She paints sympathetic character portraits as Jay struggles to reconcile the brother she loved with the formal process of canonisation, while her family attempts to give a tragedy meaning in the only way they know how. The parallels between modes of ritual and faith were subtly done and didn’t feel overemphasised. While the time-skips, which can often make a narrative feel fragmented, actually served to showcase underlying themes of divine time versus human time.

The excellent of ‘Ordinary Saints’ stems from the fact that it speaks to profoundly ambivalent feelings around religion, identity, family, and sexuality, but sets these against a background of sainthood. There is no room for nuance in sainthood, and this only serves to make the complicated humanity of the narrative shine brighter.

I adored this book. I was so excited by the overview of the plot and it did not disappoint. A book about family, grief, faith and sexuality written masterfully in such easy prose. The pace was perfect and I found myself so drawn into Jay and her life and her family. The themes are dealt with so sensitively and were so thought provoking. The characterisation was excellent, you alternately feel frustrated with Jay and so sympathetic towards her, and all characters were fleshed out enough that you understood their points of view. A really special read.

'The last three popes have created more saints than all the others combined', and Jay's dead brother is on the long, very public path to being one.

'Ordinary Saints' is the stunning debut from @niamhsquared that tackles the legacy of an older sibling, whose rise to sainthood triggers our protagonist Jay's inner turmoil around her own identity and place in the world.

If her brother is a saint, then who is she? The Catholic church doesn't just see her as less devoted, she's an 'immoral sinner'; she's queer. And what does that mean for the way her late brother might have loved her if he knew? As Jay says, 'we're living in a new Ireland. So why are they still like this?' She means her family, her childhood community, but also society.

Covering themes of legacy, grief, family, queer identity and the far-reaching and no less powerful legacy of the Catholic church, 'Ordinary Saints' will teach you so much about how honouring one life, might negatively affect another.

I ate this up over a few days and had to slow down to relish the exquisite writing.

5 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

With thanks to @netgalley and @manilla_press for this arc copy 🙏

I think Ordinary Saints by Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin will be very succesful when released. It explores ambivalent feelings to do with religion and faith, relationships, sibling rivalry, sexuality and identity.

Jay is a young queer woman in London who has escaped from the oppressive roots of her devout Irish Catholic upbringing. She's confronted with her mixed feelings about family and her views about faith when she finds out that the process has begun to canonise her brother, a trainee priest who died in an accident in Rome.

This is a stellar debut. The writing is fluid and compelling with deft characterisation. The story gripped me and although there's a quiet reflective tone beneath it, it's a propulsive story and I devoured this. The writing felt fresh, unique and bold. I loved the themes and how thought provoking and oddly moving this book is.

This is already a book I can't wait to recommend. It's something really special and a perfect read