Each Sheila Armstrong book is better than the last and The Red Mouth is a particularly accomplished piece of writing. Polyphonic, ingenuous and so deftly written every scene is painterly. Her writing keeps careful time with the landscape, language and rich traditions of Ireland, making this a novel with one eye trained on the past and the other soldered to the here and now -- JAN CARSON, author of The Raptures A phenomenal novel - expansive, funny and so, so beautiful. To read Sheila Armstrong is a unique experience. The Red Mouth has a hallucinatory quality, and its characters still haunt me. One of the best reading experiences Ive had in years -- LOUISE NEALON, author of Snowflake Armstrong writes with such sensitivity to the repercussions of history, and such keen attention to the particularities and peculiarities of human and animal behaviour. A truly remarkable, exquisitely composed novel -- SARA BAUME, author of Seven Steeples Sheila Armstrong unearths a story of deep relevance in these difficult times, tying our fates to the land and our relationship to our past, present and future. Told in beautiful, rich prose with deep affection for the bog, its traditions and secrets, giving us a mirror to examine ourselves with, and a place to hide all our shame and sins. The bog seeps into your psyche, it becomes alive, dense with seasons, secrets, and eventually solace. Armstrong reveals so much about our true natures with stunning sentences and dark humour. A masterpiece -- OLIVIA FITZSIMONS, author of The Quiet Whispers Never Stop An absolute tour de force of language, The Red Mouth pulses with beauty, insight and mounting dread. Sheila Armstrong is one of the most powerful writers at work today - she delves unflinchingly into the treasures and terrors that dwell beneath all our ordinary and extraordinary lives. This novel is a remarkable artistic achievement -- COLIN WALSH, author of Kala The Red Mouth is a work of great emotional depth and psychological insight - to read Armstrong's writing is to be enriched -- ALAN MURRIN, author of The Coast Road The Red Mouth has floored me, not just once, but possibly every second sentence. Sheila Armstrong is one of those writers whose work you know will be around well beyond her lifetime. A stunning read, The Red Mouth brims with sublime prose and vital reflections on human and environmental frailty -- ANNE GRIFFIN, author of When All is Said What a deep joy, to find oneself immersed in the world of The Red Mouth. Here is a book that is alive to texture and sound and human inquisitiveness, a book that is alive to wonder and digging and determination and love. Here is a book that is alive -- DOIREANN Ní GHRíOFA, author of A Ghost in the Throat The Red Mouth is utterly mesmerising; a timely and deeply compelling meditation on the fragility of the natural world and the interconnectedness of human lives. Written in breathtakingly original prose, it is a triumph of imagination and empathy from one of Ireland's most talented writers -- ROISIN O'DONNELL, author of Nesting A rich, unnerving, singular work of fiction that works, in style and substance, with deep time -- NIAMH CAMPBELL, author of We Were Young A story is best if there is something ancient and inexplicable embedded in it. Here is a bog, ancient animal and human remains, archaeologists and their people, and time. The Red Mouth is rich in sentences filled with electric barbwire. Sheila Armstrong is a virtuoso stylist who handles words with Nabokovian surety. Her sentences are like paintings, Irish words caught in the net of her remarkable imagery like migrating birds. When the book-burners knock on your door this is one to hide in the flour barrel -- ANNIE PROULX, author of Brokeback Mountain Reading Sheila Armstrong is like reading Claire Keegan or Donal Ryan for the first time. A writer already touched by greatness -- JOSEPH O'CONNOR, author of My Father's House A beautiful, elemental and lyrical novel, capturing the undertow of lives through that staggering Irish metaphor of the bog, suggesting a legacy of community and self sacrifice rather than violence. Assured and devastating with a rare poetic intelligence -- UNA MANNION, author of A Crooked Tree The beautifully occulted nature of the world is laid bare in Sheila Armstrong's extraordinary The Red Mouth. Readers will be enthralled and taken deep into the depths of this mesmerizing novel -- JEFF VANDERMEER, author of The Southern Reach Trilogy Sheila Armstrong writes about landscapes and their communities with rare delicacy and warmth, and with a gift for the unspoken rooted in the best stories of quiet people. Ill read almost anything in sentences so finely made -- SARAH MOSS, author of Ghost Wall
