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Product Description
'Since I’ve had my first book published, I’ve earned more from cleaning than from writing. The home economics don’t add up.'
HOME ECONOMICS is Caitríona Lally’s humorous, thought-provoking memoir of her time working in the housekeeping department at Trinity College Dublin while she awaits the publication of her first two novels in 2015 and 2021. Having cleaned part-time as a student, this return marks the beginning of a negotiation between the practical and creative demands of a writer’s life – an equation that is further complicated when she becomes pregnant.
An arch and honest reconciliation of the colliding parts of selfhood: the mother who is a cleaner so that she can be a writer. Bold and thought-provoking, self-deprecating and soaked in Lally’s singular voice, her third book and first memoir tackles head on failure, class, economics and ideas of what a writer should be.
HOME ECONOMICS is Caitríona Lally’s humorous, thought-provoking memoir of her time working in the housekeeping department at Trinity College Dublin while she awaits the publication of her first two novels in 2015 and 2021. Having cleaned part-time as a student, this return marks the beginning of a negotiation between the practical and creative demands of a writer’s life – an equation that is further complicated when she becomes pregnant. At Trinity, Lally and her colleagues shout to one another through empty, ancient libraries, step around sleeping students and laugh at the cleaner-shaped blind spots in the thinking of feminist conference attendees. Lally finds humour in the gap between how the world views this famous university and how she experiences it during her workday while offering a powerful reflection on the work she chooses to do, and why; how we might perceive ourselves, and others; and whether our own personal home economics actually add up. In her third book and first memoir, Lally writes in that space between the way the world sees the life of a writer and the reality of her own juggle with all the different, complex parts of her: writer, mother and partner, cleaner and runner, employee and colleague . . . success and failure.
( A personal recommendation - I was able to read an advance copy of this book ( thanks to the publishers) - it is excellent, I can't speak highly enough of it.
Now, you may say that's a common refrain from a bookseller, ''this book is this, this book is that etc''. But this book will feature on many 2026 books of the year lists, it's certainly (already, as I write this in April 2026) on mine.
Loosely laid in is a signed adhesive label, signed by the author
The chapters dealing with the (difficult) birth of the author's child in particular resonated with me, as they will with any parent. But it's the quality of the writing that sets this book apart - the nuances, the sharply observed portaits, the wit, the frankness, and above all the self awareness. Caitríona Lally won the Rooney Prize as a young author, this book (as well as the excellent WUNDERLAND) will show you why. Read it. You'll be better for it.
I rarely add my presonal thoughts to any book listing, but this one deserves it. Kudos also to New Island Books and the excellent cover design from Sarah McCoy.
Tomás Conneely, thebookshop.ie , Tipperary.
