Caly's TOP 5 in 2025 | The City Changes its Face - Eimear McBride

Caly says... Through her pulsing and beautifully crafted prose (basically poetry!), Eimear McBride presents us with a hugely intimate portrait of new love and all it's messiness. Navigating the 20 year age gap between two lovers we are confronted by echoes of struggle, scilence and the realities of artistic creation. A remarkable and raw story of identity, addiction, closeness, viocelessness and distance.

--

So, all would be grand then, as far as the eye could see. Which it was, for a while.

Up until the city, remembering its knives and forks, invited itself in to dine. It's 1995. Outside their grimy window, the city rushes by.

But in the flat there is only Stephen and Eily. Their bodies, the tangled sheets. Unpacked boxes stacked in the kitchen and the total obsession of new love.

Eighteen months later, the flat feels different. Love is merging with reality. Stephen's teenage daughter has re-appeared, while Eily has made a choice, the consequences of which she cannot outrun.

Now they face a reckoning for all that's been left unspoken - emotions, secrets and ambitions. Tonight, if they are to find one another again, what must be said aloud?Love rallies against life. Time tells truths.

The city changes its face.