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When All is Said

On sale

24th January 2019

Price: £9.99

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Selected: ebook / ISBN-13: 9781473683013

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THE NUMBER ONE IRISH BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD

‘A rare jewel’ John Banville
‘A genuine page-turner’ Donal Ryan
‘This is how you tell a story’ Cecelia Ahern

At the bar of a grand hotel in a small Irish town sits 84-year-old Maurice Hannigan. He’s alone, as usual – though tonight is anything but.

Over the course of this evening, he will raise five toasts to the five people who have meant the most to him. Through these stories – of unspoken joy and regret, a secret tragedy kept hidden, a fierce love that never found its voice – the life of one man will powerfully and poignantly be laid bare.

‘A book to savour and pass on. An absolute joy’ Sunday Mirror
‘A rich and moving story, a poetic voice and unforgettable character in Maurice’ Elle

Reviews

NetGalley Books of 2019
A heart-warming, heart-breaking and poignant debut of rare power.
Donal Ryan
A hugely enjoyable, engrossing novel, a genuine page-turner.
Stylist
An ingenious narrative
Graham Norton
Anne Griffin's debut novel is a must read. Beautifully observed, masterful story telling - stunning!
Kit de Waal
Beautifully written, unhurried and thoughtful, and a character you love from the off.
Kathleen Rooney, author of LILIAN BOXFISH TAKES A WALK
In the twilight of his long and eventful life, Irishman Maurice Hannigan still possesses the deep and mellow voice that his grandmother once told him 'could melt icebergs-a voice that debut author Anne Griffin renders with wit, verve, and endearing irascibility. When All Is Said captures the texture of a night catching up with an old friend--the pleasures and comforts, the stories and surprises-one that you never want to end, and all the more bittersweet because you know, of course, that it must.
John Banville
Maurice Hannigan is a wonderful invention, whose bitter-sweet meditations will stay long in the reader's mind. Anne Griffin has fashioned a rare jewel.
Janet Peery, National Book Award finalist
Maurice Hannigan is one of those rare and unforgettable characters whose lives we enter, inhabit for a time all too brief, and emerge from deeply changed. Anne Griffin is a writer with a bright, bright future.
John Boyne
There is something special here . . . The next big name to emerge from the Irish writing scene.
Cecelia Ahern
This is how you tell a story
Donal Ryan
A hugely enjoyable, engrossing novel, a genuine page-turner.
John Banville
Maurice Hannigan is a wonderful invention, whose bitter-sweet meditations will stay long in the reader's mind. Anne Griffin has fashioned a rare jewel.
Graham Norton
Anne Griffin's debut novel is a must read. Beautifully observed, masterful story telling - stunning!
Cecelia Ahern
This is how you tell a story
Kit de Waal
Beautifully written, unhurried and thoughtful, and a character you love from the off.
Fanny Blake, Daily Mail
Griffin is a magical storyteller whose prose is effortless and clear. She conjures an intimate, poignant and ultimately enthralling portrait of a man who has battled loneliness and other demons throughout his life. Maurice is superbly well-realised: a character who tries to make amends and, in so doing, cracked my heart.
Irish Country Magazine
When All Is Said tells the tale of an imperfect man who you will not be able to forget.
The I
A warm and wise treasure of a book with a character whose voice draws you in from the start
Sunday Times
[Anne Griffin] builds a remarkably rich sense of place, while also tracing the wider changes affecting Ireland. ...Maurice is a lovingly rendered example of the current vogue for characters who have fallen through the cracks
Sunday Mirror
A book to savour, and pass on. An absolute joy
Irish Independent
Griffin's strength is in voice and in the rhythm of her prose ... She is excellent at interrogating the complexity of Maurice's barriers
Guardian
[An] impressively confident debut ... Maurice Hannigan emerges as an engaging, compassionate creation
Red Magazine
This could be one of the big book hits of 2019
Good Housekeeping
Poetic and touching without being sentimental, When All Is Said by Anne Griffin is something special.
Dierdre O'Brien, Best
A powerful page-turner ... wonderfully poetic, atmospheric and moving.
RTE Guide
A warm and nourishing story from a writer of much promise.
Image Magazine
Griffin's debut is a beautiful and poignant page-turner.
NetGalley Books of 2019
A heart-warming, heart-breaking and poignant debut of rare power.
Mature Times
A fine literary debut from a writer I'm sure we'll hear more from
Woman's Weekly
An emotional yet uplifting novel - we defy you not to fall in love with Maurice Hannigan and his heart-warming story.
People
Superb ... incredibly moving without ever straying into sentiment
Kathleen Rooney
When All Is Said captures the texture of a night catching up with an old friend - the pleasures and comforts, the stories and surprises - one that you never want to end, and all the more bittersweet because you know, of course, that it must.
Janet Peery
Maurice Hannigan is one of those rare and unforgettable characters whose lives we enter, inhabit for a time all too brief, and emerge from deeply changed. Anne Griffin is a writer with a bright, bright future.
Mail on Sunday
Pitch-perfect prose ... Moving and beautifully written, this is a wonderfully assured debut.
Sunday Express
It's all beautifully done; a tale told in the plain but poetic prose of a man who recognises the tragic truths gleaned from a life of love and loss. A gem of a book
Grazia
A proper tear-jerker, but one that will ultimately leave you feeling hopeful
Saga
A beautifully written, perfectly paced, heartfelt novel
Irish Times
An atmospheric debut ... The most impressive aspects of this first novel are its rich, flowing prose, its convincing voice and its imaginative and clever structure ... Griffin is a welcome arrival to the literary scene
Sunday Business Post
A heartfelt and impressive debut novel
Choice
Beautifully written, this is a feast of Irish storytelling
Waterstones Weekly
Achingly poignant and wryly funny, Irish author Anne Griffin's luminous debut is a celebration of stolen joy and lost opportunities
The I Newspaper
A rich, fluid debut novel
Irish Mail on Sunday
Will stay with you long after you close the cover
Sunday Independent
As candid a portrait of human frailty as you're likely to find. Griffin is uncannily accurate in her depiction of that peculiarly Irish emotional paralysis we're all familiar with.
Elle
A rich and moving story, a poetic voice and unforgettable character in Maurice
My Weekly
[Maurice's] story will make you laugh and cry - When All Is Said is a wonderful debut novel from Anne Griffin. She says she "wanted to write a damn good story". She has succeeded beyond her dreams.
Woman's Way
Tissues at the ready for what is a confident yet carefully written debut . . . I adored it. Utterly recommended.
People Magazine
Griffin's stunning debut, brimming with irresistible Irish-isms, is an elegy to love, loss and the complexity of life.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
An accomplished debut. A sensitive layered description of grief and regret . . . excellent
LitHub
Beautifully realized
Summer Holiday Reads, Daily Mail
A portrait of a life in which revenge, love, loss, and misunderstanding all play their part . . . This is a wonderful piece of story-telling that is intimate, compassionate and extraordinarily assured.
Audio book review, The Times
Anne Griffin's first novel has taken Ireland by storm . . . Immediate, often funny, sometimes dark and, on occasion, devastatingly sad.
NB Magazine
Nearly 40 years of publishing has made me a cynical reviewer of books, but, oh my god, it's impossible to be churlish about discovering such a fabulous and unforgettable character. A one-hit wonder this is not
Independent
A gentle tale of an irascible Irish farmer, who spends the last day of his life toasting the five people who have meant the most to him- sure to move even the stoniest of hearts