Oona

"In Alice Lyons' implosive first novel, Oona, child of first generation American migrants, lives in an affluent New Jersey suburb where conspicuous consumption and white privilege prevail. A silence surrounding death extends to the family home where Oona's mother lies dying of cancer. As her inner life goes into shutdown, Oona has her first encounters with sex, drugs and other adolescent rites of passage. What does a voice alienated from itself sound like? How can the creative process be truthfully represented? In this remarkable debut, a female character's fraught journey into adulthood is rendered in vivid colour. Oona, the emergent artist, encounters the physical world and the materials of her craft, engaging with her losses through Ireland's culture and landscape. Set during the era of the Celtic Tiger and its aftermath, this is a resonant story conveyed in an innovative form. Written entirely without the letter 'o', the tone of the book reflects Oona's inner damage and the destruction caused by hiding, omitting and obliterating parts of ourselves."