New Island Books

The eagerly anticipated second novel by Rooney Prize winner Caitriona Lally.

At the time of her death in 1815, twenty-nine-year-old Ellen Hutchins had catalogued over a thousand species of seaweed and plants from her native Bantry Bay. Ireland s first female botanist, Ellen was a major contributor to nineteenth-century scientific discovery. And yet, like so many brilliant women lost in history, it is her personal story that will resonate today. In her remarkable debut novel, Marianne Lee fuses fact with fiction to imagine Ellen's rich but tormented inner life, repressed by the gender and class confines of her time.

Hard Border traces the roots of a century-old, hotly contested border that, after Brexit, will be the only land frontier between the United Kingdom and the European Union.