The Alternatives

Equal parts hilarious and profound, The Alternatives is a powerful new novel about four gifted Irish sisters, from a major literary voice. Perfect for fans of Jonathan Franzen, Maggie O'farrell and Claire Vaye Watkins.

Olwen was plunged prematurely into adulthood when her parents died in tragic circumstances. She and her three younger sisters – each single, each with a PhD – are now in their thirties and leading disparate, distanced lives. Until one day Olwen, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the Earth's future, abruptly vanishes from her home.

Together for the first time in years, her three siblings descend on the Irish countryside in search of a sister who doesn't actually want to be found. In an isolated rural bungalow they reach into their uncommon past, confronting both old wounds and a desperately uncertain future.

Fiercely witty and unexpectedly hopeful, The Alternatives is an unforgettable portrait of a family perched on our collective precipice, told by one of Ireland's most gifted storytellers.

'The Alternatives is both a book of ideas and a gripping read, formally audacious yet deeply humane. Superb.' Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind

About the Author

Caoilinn Hughes is an Irish writer and poet whose second novel, The Wild Laughter (2020) won the Encore Award 2021, was longlisted for the 2021 Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize, and was shortlisted for several awards including the Dalkey Emerging Writer Literary Award. Her first novel, Orchid & the Wasp (2018), won the Collyer Bristow Prize 2019 and shortlisted for the Hearst Big Book Awards and the Butler Literary Award. She holds a PhD from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and is currently the Oscar Wilde Centre Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin.