Every now and then, a debut novel comes along that sweeps all before it. That’s certainly the case for Elizabeth O’Connor’s widely acclaimed Whale Fall.

It is 1938 and on an island off the coast of Wales, Manod is trying to imagine her future. Her choices are stark. But when two English anthropologists arrive on the island, she senses the possibility of a thrilling new life. However, as she becomes entangled in their work, and their strange relationship, the outside world she had yearned for appears a much darker place than she could ever have imagined.

We’ll be talking to Elizabeth about her extraordinary novel, her writing life and what’s coming next.

 Elizabeth O’Connor is the author of the widely acclaimed novel, Whale Fall. Her short stories have appeared in The White Review and Granta, and she was the winner of The White Review Short Story Prize in 2020. She has a PhD in English Literature from the University of Birmingham, on the modernist writer H.D. and her writing of coastal landscapes. She lives in Birmingham.
Photo credit: Ilona Denton