The Wardrobe Department

‘Elaine Garvey is a tremendous new talent in Irish writing - I'm certain the reader will recognise inside half a page that she's the real thing’ KEVIN BARRY         

‘The Wardrobe Department is at once familiar and surprising, knotty and tender, tough and beguiling, and its author a sure hand with a light touch . . . Garvey [is] one of those enviable writers whose piercing eye for human contradiction and self-sabotage never dims her affection for the souls she's so beautifully painted’
LISA McINERNEY         

‘The Wardrobe Department is full of verve and wit and humanity. In writing that is sharp and sassy, Garvey captures perfectly the complexities and heartbreak of a young woman's life and the great pull and push of home’ MARY COSTELLO         

‘The Wardrobe Department is so beautiful. London theatre and rural Ireland . . . Elaine Garvey has created two exquisitely drawn worlds that I know so well and brought them to life through the eyes of a young woman who could be my best friend. I love this book. Will read it again and again and again’ DENISE GOUGH         

‘A gift of a novel. I felt relieved after reading it, like I had been hungry for some elusive feeling, and finally found something that hit the spot. There are sentences in this book that will keep me going for a long time’ LOUISE NEALON         

‘From fine stitches to generational patterns, this book is a deft and graceful exploration of the roles we play - and the cost of breaking free’ SHEILA ARMSTRONG         

‘Delicate and fierce, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful. An astoundingly good novel. The writing is as sharp and sure as a dress-maker’s scissors’ DANIELLE McLAUGHLIN         

‘A precise and beguiling novel that’s alive with human insight . . . Garvey’s bone-dry wit and emotional precision give us a book that’s full of joy, despair and hope, just like the life it portrays so truly. A thrilling debut from a supremely talented writer’ STEPHEN WALSH         

‘Furious and compassionate, this portrait of an Irish family balances the vice grip on feelings against moments of heart-wrenching tenderness. Complex, lyrical and intelligent, Garvey explores the damage across generations. I read it one gulp’ UNA MANNION