Join exciting talents Aimée Walsh and Rosie Price as they discuss their new novels with Anna Cafolla. 

 Exile is ‘an eruption of a book by a phenomenal writer’ – Darran Anderson

 Belfast, late 2000s and troubled young student Fiadh’s life is turned completely upside down on a night out after a devastating and violent encounter. Pretty soon everyone has heard about what happened; it is impossible to keep the rumours from spreading, the gossip from spiralling out of control. Now her life is in freefall and Fiadh is helpless to do anything about it. Her nights revolve around random hook ups, fuelled by drink and drugs. Her life quickly descends into chaos, a chaos that nearly costs her everything… 

Alive with the vernacular of young Northern Ireland and rich with late 2000s detail, this is an unforgettable debut about consent, class, friendship and the meaning of home .

The Orange Room is about the narrow line between passion and control, and an insidious kind of violence that is difficult to name. Asking what it means to see clearly, and what courage it takes to be seen, it is the story of a tenacious young woman who – through her art, her strength, her determination – finds her way back to herself, from the critically acclaimed author of What Red Was.  

Rhianne expresses her inner world through line and colour. This summer, though, back home in the West Country, she is seeking distraction in heat and noise. Art school in London has ripped away her confidence and sense of safety: better for now to be swept along by the hotel kitchen where she’s working, where the pressure is high and the dangers are more obvious. Sharp knives. Hot plates. Littletime to think. Her dad, Dominic, is concerned for Rhianne but relieved to have her close. Her step-mum, Melissa, is on alert, though trying to tread carefully. But then there’s Callum, just across the chef’s pass, with his controlled manner and intent gaze. There’s attraction. There’s everything that comes next. 

About our guests:

Aimée Walsh is a writer from Belfast. Her short stories have been longlisted for the London Magazine Short Story Prize and published in Extra Teeth. Her non-fiction and book criticism has appeared in the Irish Times, Observer, RTÉ Culture, Dazed, Refinery29 , and The Independent, amongst others. Walsh holds a PhD in Irish Literature and Cultural History. Exile is her debut novel.

Rosie Price is an author based in East London. She grew up in Gloucestershire, studied English at Cambridge and started writing her first novel, What Red Was, a year after graduating. What Red Was was published to critical acclaim, translated into six languages and optioned for film and TV by BBC Studios and Cuba Pictures. Rosie was also listed as an Observer Debut Novelist of 2019.  She is also studying for a PhD in Creative Nonfiction at King’s College London, for which she is writing a memoir about trauma, movement practice, and memory.

Anna Cafolla is a Northern Irish writer and Cosmopolitan UK Site Editor.