Snowflake by Louise Nealon is great craic. It’s the story of eighteen-year-old Debbie who has grown up on her family’s dairy farm about 40 min outside of Dublin. She’s a country girl. Everyone knows her uncle, who is frequently at the pub, and her mam, who’s shacked up with a younger man. Debbie’s uncle Billy lives in a caravan on the family property and, despite how transient that sounds, he’s a source of stability for Debbie. Her mom Maeve believes that she has other people’s dreams, she dances naked in the sea, and spends a lot of time in her bed or writing in her dream journals.
Being a special snowflake is a putdown, but each of these characters is unique and has their own quirks. Debbie feels like a country bumkin every time she’s in the city, but she figures out commuting, her coursework, making friends, and how to drive. There are a ton of Irish expressions and I feel like I met many of these people during my own time in Dublin teaching at the university. But I don’t think you need to have lived (or even visited) Ireland to appreciate this novel about growing up and accepting your crazy family.
Snowflake is published in Canada by HarperCollins