Langan, Sheila (17 February 2011). "Young Irish Writers Part 2: Claire Kilroy". irishamerica.com. Irish America LLC. Kilroy achieves this sense of urgency by tapping into our darkest fears and using the “rules” of the best psychological thrillers to get us invested in the people she writes about. I feared for both the mother and the child, worried some terrible fate was going to befall at least one of them, and by the time I got to the end I felt emotionally wrung out. It’s a brilliantly intense read. I t is more than ten years since Claire Kilroy’s last novel was published, and this latest is nothing like the others. Kilroy has been recognised as an original since the appearance of her debut, All Summer. In this, and in subsequent works such as Tenderwire and The Devil I Know, she stamped her personality on Irish literature through a style that was by turns savagely satirical and

How to sum this up? Brilliant, just brilliant! I loved this book so much. As a mother it was so utterly relatable. The intensity and relentlessness of the early days of motherhood was perfectly captured. The dark thoughts, the exhaustion, the loneliness, the feeling of being lost in a new role that is much more consuming than you expected it to be. There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hallway,” wrote Cyril Connolly. It’s a quotation that the novelist Claire Kilroy may well have reflected on over the years.This really is a woman’s world, and notwithstanding that men, in general, are nowadays much more engaged in the bringing and nurturing of new life, both before and after the event, this is the life change that, more than any other, determines the difference between the sexes. Reading this book was my Mother's Day treat this year, a whole 5 hours to myself with Claire Kilroy's story of motherhood, how it catapults you into a world of fear and love and overwhelm and pride and exhaustion and joy pain and devotion and trauma and connection and resentment and obsession and confusion and shame and judgement and never-ending, never-ending, never-ending..... She cherishes the prospect of sharing precious years with her child in the future before the ravages of age take their t

Burke, Mary. "Claire Kilroy: An Overview and an Interview." LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory 28:1 (2017): 13–33. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10436928.2017.1273731

Caster Semenya’s The Race to Be Myself made me gasp

Soldier Sailor is a fictional novelisation of the experiences Claire Kilroy originally documented in her 2015 essay F ofr Phone. Soldier Sailor is about motherhood and the loss of self (or identity) when a woman has a baby and sheds her old life to become a parent. Kilroy exposes the intensity and bittersweet emotions this can generate. How many novels and how many works of non fiction have been written by women describing, reflecting, and making sense of childbirth? The change to the woman, now mother; the mental battle as joy, and unbridled love, fight with the enormity of the immediate life change. Exhaustion, unremitting responsibility, physical pain and body transformation; all experienced under the huge strain of sleep deprivation like you’ve never imagined.

Soldier, Sailor is by Irish writer Claire Kilroy and I have to say this is probably my most favourite of all the Booker eligible books I’ve read recently. This is a love letter to Sailor, an ode to her son if you will. It’s a commentary on motherhood, it’s struggles and it’s delights which brings with it a life long love even when you’re old and grey. The ending is simply wonderful and leaves me with tears running down my face. This is a fantastic book and a sheer privilege to read.Overwhelmed and exhausted and on the brink of collapse she is at times a risk to her child, to his safety, and yet somehow the idea coexists that she is his fiercest protector and will do anything for him. This idea is stretched to the point of suggesting the mother is the sacrificial lamb upon which the life of her baby depends. Meanwhile her husband continues with his normal life and regular routines and seems oblivious to the chaos that swamps them. The structure doesn’t follow a classical arc. Characterisation is deft but fleeting. Break-ups and reunions happen offstage It’s urgent, powerful and almost dizzying in its ability to disorientate the reader. Sometimes it’s hard to determine if the narrator is sane or maybe just has a vivid imagination. Is she reliable? Or is she just venting? was a momentous year for the author, who grew up and still lives in Howth. She married her partner Alan that May, her fourth book came out in August and she gave birth to their son Lawrence that December.