Exile

A taut, accomplished and affecting addition to the recent body of Belfast novels about the disaffected young, and the complicated tug that a place can have on you. Walsh is part of a generation of writers imagining the city and reckoning with its complex past anew, and her Fiadh is a fully-realised character with whom it's a pleasure to spend time, sharp and funny even through the confusion of her downward spirals of self-destruction, always in an instantly recognisable, distinctively salty Belfast way

Aimee Walsh's debut novel takes a fresh and unwavering look at the landscape of "post-conflict" Northern Ireland. Exile skilfully interrogates what it means to have a complex relationship with home, paints a stunningly realistic portrait of the awkward years between childhood and adult existence and is, above all, a cracking read. Walsh excels at capturing the caustic lyricality of Belfast speak

An explosive debut that explores the aftermath of the ultimate betrayal. Sticky with spilt sambuca and threaded with loneliness, it's about being young, lost and unable to process a stomach-churning trauma, but it's also about the joys, sorrows and complexities of female friendship, and what it is to both leave home and to return changed

Exile is an assured, unsentimental portrayal of youth. Aimee Walsh's authentic depictions of self-loathing, confusion and dissociation often create a deep unease while reading, yet the cracking wit and sense of adventure pulsing through Fiadh's journey deftly balance out these darker elements. A compelling debut

Exile rings true, encapsulating so vividly and viscerally a place in time but also a time in life. An eruption of a book by a phenomenal writer

A passionate, authoritative novel that maps with scrupulous detail the intensities and treacherously shifting allegiances of its cast

Visceral and compelling, Exile is an unflinching novel whose clear-eyed compassion burns brightly even in its darkest moments