Harvesting - Softcover

Lisa Harding

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1848407009 ISBN 13: 9781848407008

Publisher: New Island Books, 2018

Synopsis

Winner of the Kate O Brien Award 2018 Shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2018 Shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year at the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards Sometimes it feels as if three minutes has passed when it s been three days, and three nights pass like a shiver of wind through the trees. I can t tell shadows from bodies, voices from spirits. Luca s face becomes an unknown man s face, me under him, then the man s face becomes Luca s and I want to reach out and smash it . . . Sammy is a spiky, quick-witted and sharp teenager living in Dublin; Nico is a warm and conscientious girl from Moldova. When they are thrown together in a Dublin brothel in a horrific twist of fate, a peculiar and important bond is formed . . . This is a novel about a flourishing but hidden world, thinly concealed beneath a veneer of normality. It s about the failings of polite society, the cruelty that can exist in apparently homely surroundings, the bluster of youth and the often appalling weakness of adults. Harvesting is heartbreaking and funny, gritty, raw and breathtakingly beautiful, where redemption is found in friendship and unexpected acts of kindness. Harvesting was inspired by Harding s involvement with a campaign against sex trafficking run by the Children s Rights Alliance. Although it is a fictionalised account, the text has been read and approved of by representatives for NGOs in both Moldova and Dublin.

About this title

Review

In much the same way that Louise O Neill s book Asking For It was a damning indictment of, and a clarion call to the discussion surrounding rape culture, Harding s book will do similarly good things for the discourse surrounding trafficking and sex work in Ireland...shocking, gut-wrenching... a new writer worth your time. --Sunday Business Post

'Shockingly good ... a brilliantly written novel. --Roddy Doyle

A novel which shines a light on some of the darkest corners of contemporary life and finds there extraordinary humanity, great hope amid the heartache. Harvesting is beautiful at the level of the sentence, profoundly moving and completely gripping. One of the best debut novels of recent years. --Alex Preston, author of This Bleeding City

About the Author

Lisa Harding is an actress, playwright and author. She has performed at the Abbey, the Gate, the Lyric, and the Manchester Library, among others. She received an MPhil in creative writing from Trinity College Dublin in 2014. Her short stories have been published in the Dublin Review, the Bath Short Story Anthology, HeadStuff and Winter Papers. Harvesting, her first novel, won the 2018 Kate O'Brien Award and was shortlisted for an Irish Book Award and the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award.

About this edition

• Publisher: New Island Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1848407009
• ISBN 13: 9781848407008
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 352