into the wreck

From a rising literary star and multi-award-winning poet, comes a hilarious and sharp novel exploring the knotty complexities of one family's relationships

How do you mourn someone you never really knew?

Three siblings - Anna, Gemma and Matthew - will have to work that out quickly. Monday is the day of their gentle, but distant, father's funeral, and for the first time in a long while they are under one roof with their mother, imperious Yvonne, awaiting the arrival of their aunt Amy, an award-winning poet.

Yet, as the funeral looms, their everyday concerns refuse to diminish: will newly sex-obsessed Gemma work out what she wants from life, beyond her mother's expectations? Can Anna maintain the fine balance between desire and nonchalance with her not-quite-exclusive boyfriend back in London? Will Amy's past explode the relationships of the present? And, crucially, will Yvonne pull off her grand, post-funeral family dinner, the solution to what she fears may be an unsolvable problem?

Told from five perspectives, into the wreck worries at the knotty complexities of one family's bonds, written with Susannah Dickey's trademark empathy and wit.

Review

An immersive exploration of grief . . . Wittily explores the fragile dynamics of a family navigating the loss of a father . . . Dickey's background as a poet is more than evident . . . The language is sharp and spare, yet deeply affecting; the five voices each unique and necessary, each one helping the reader better understand the fragile architecture of a family at odds with itself. There are no wasted words in this novel. The humour is observational and pithy . . . Dickey's powerful words encourage us to explore our own buried tragedies and unsung truths -- Joanna Cannon ― Guardian

into the wreck is an intriguing, witty, moving and complex interrogation of modern Irish history, family, messy grief, and indomitable connections. Dickey is a wonderfully stylish writer with an unwavering eye for the truths of relationships: however squalid or sweet these truths may in fact be -- JOHN PATRICK McHUGH, author of Fun and Games

I absolutely gulped down into the wreck.Dickey's prose, as ever, is perfectly calibrated. I can't think of a contemporary writer who tackles modern relationships with fiercer wit and greater wisdom - these characters spike off the page -- A. K. BLAKEMORE, Desmond Elliot Prize-winning author of The Glutton

A superb piece of work. Incredibly moving, powerfully written. Substantial in its themes, profound in its interrogation of familial relationships, Susannah Dickey beautifully articulates the divergent existential experiences of parents and their children, teasing out the deeply uncomfortable and often painful situations arising in the aftermath of loss -- MICHAEL MAGEE, Nero Book Award-winning author of Close to Home

Susannah Dickey is an unreasonably bright, wise and funny writer. into the wreck is a timeless, moving novel about the grip that family and birthplace hold on our lives. The novel bears its heavy contemplations with ease, assurance, perspective, humour and generosity. The vaults of Irish literature are newly enriched -- CAOILINN HUGHES, author of The Wild Laughter

In this wonderful novel, the narrators complicate one another as they share their interiority and personal struggles to know the people they love . . . Susannah Dickey creates a rich, sensitive and vivid portrait of a family keening to understand each other and themselves -- AMY KEY, author of Arrangements in Blue

into the wreck is a haunting masterpiece that captures the quiet and deadly drama of everyday family life. Set against the shadows of the North, we are immersed into what forms a family, what holds it together and how the ordinary becomes epic. into the wreck is a meditation on intimacy and endurance. Dickey's storytelling is both forensic and tender - and she has a rare gift for illuminating the beauty in the banal. The novel feels simultaneously grounded in the present and touched by something otherworldly. Utterly original, compelling, sardonic, brutal, visceral and emotionally devastating, this is easily one of the best books I've read this year -- ELAINE FEENEY, Booker Prize-longlisted author of How to Build a Boat

About the Author

Susannah Dickey is a writer from Derry. She is the author of two novels, Tennis Lessons (2020) and Common Decency (2022), which was an Irish Waterstones Book of the Month. Her debut poetry collection, ISDAL, was a Guardian and Irish Times Book of the Year, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the John Pollard Prize, and won the inaugural PEN Heaney Prize. She was the winner of the 2024 Irish Chair of Poetry Travel Award and was a recipient of an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors in 2020, and her poetry and poetry criticism has appeared in the Poetry Review, Poetry London, the TLS, and Poetry Ireland Review. Her short fiction has appeared in The Dublin Review, The Fence, and The White Review, was longlisted for the Sunday Times Short Story Award and shortlisted in The Moth Nature Writing Prize. She has had fiction and nonfiction broadcast on BBC R4 and BBC R3.