Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an advanced copy of this novel. I highly enjoyed it and will be recommending it to others. Really enjoyed this novel and the setting.

When a sibling vanishes, three sisters are doing it for themselves in 'The Alternatives'
FICTION: A reunion in rural Ireland becomes a reckoning.
By Claude Peck Special to the Star Tribune
April 10, 2024 — 7:30am
photo of writer Caoilinn Hughes
Robin Christian
Caoilinn Hughes
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The Flattery sisters, to quote the song, are doing it for themselves.

Irish novelist Caoilinn Hughes' "The Alternatives" centers on four siblings, all in their 30s, each accomplished and independent. None is married, though Rhona has a young child, and Maeve is considering hitting up her Croatian mime housemate for a sperm donation.

Despite some head-scratching narrative slowdowns, "The Alternatives" rarely fails to impress and, frequently, even to wow. It's a novel of tiny, telling details alongside big ideas. Here's a minor character in a brief appearance at a village pub, her asymmetrical arrangement of dimples giving her "an unbroken expression of cordial acceptance." Here's a section about threats to the democratic process. Here's Nell, quoting an entire poem by Emily Dickinson.

Hughes is uninhibited, intensely perceptive. Her oddball similes sometimes click like magic, but occasionally go clunk. In spiky prose, she fearlessly explores the worlds of geology teacher Olwen, philosophy professor Nell, celebrity chef Maeve and political scientist Rhona. She deftly cuts from detailed scenes of undergrads learning about tectonic convergence to a lecture on Aristotle, from a high-end catered dinner to an all-night dance fueled by Ecstasy.

After introducing her cast in a series of potent, captivating opening chapters, Hughes sets into motion a fairly straightforward plot. Olwen suddenly leaves her partner and his two young sons, as well as her teaching position, riding off at midnight on a bicycle into the Irish countryside. Alarmed by her disappearance, her sisters launch a search-and-rescue mission.

When they all end up at a rundown house that Olwen has taken over in the middle of rainy nowhere, the novel becomes a screenplay that employs italic stage directions for much more than scene-setting, exits and entrances.

Here Hughes' sure grip on her material loosens, becoming digressive and idiosyncratic. A subplot about political repression in Chile fizzles. The sisters' reunion is marked by indirection and hostility, with everyone seeming afraid to ask Olwen the obvious questions: Why'd you flee? Where is your new life headed? It's as if such direct queries and Olwen's potential response have become beside the point, that her belief in "peer-reviewed fact" places her at odds with the vagaries of barely explicable human grief. Mental illness is not really evidence-based.
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Chinks in the sisters' armor of high achievement surface. Olwen drinks too much. Maeve's cookbook empire faces a setback. Nell has an undiagnosed, disabling medical condition. The closeness of the women, forged as teens after their parents died suddenly, shows signs of crumbling under the weight of old hurts and contemporary pressures. A wicked sense of humor lurks among all this darkness.
The Alternatives
The Alternatives

Career challenges meet those created by ticking biological clocks and relationship mishaps. Faults are found. Alliances form and dissolve. Through Olwen's earth sciences background and deep eco-pessimism, we learn about imminent threats to the landmass of Ireland itself. "The drumlins we'll leave behind will be made of Lego astronauts and Kalashnikovs and radioactive chicken bones and Jesus-in-a-manger figurines," she warns her students on a geology field trip.

"The Alternatives" contains multitudes. Its mysteries and complexities reward a second reading. Its weaknesses render it human. The book's ending is a stunner. And Olwen, Maeve, Nell and Rhona make it unforgettable.

Claude Peck is a former columnist and editor at the Star Tribune.

The Alternatives

By: Caoilinn Hughes.

Publisher: Riverhead, $28, 338 pages.
noreply+claude-peck-st@voxmedia.com

This was such a joy to read - just the right balance of quirkiness, social commentary and poignant reflection to make this a compulsive and unputdownable read for me.

I love stories about sisters and plots that incorporate food writing, so that a major part of this was an “IG-home cook seeking connection turned celebrity chef heralding local ingredients amidst the swirling politics of Brexit-Ireland” was like catnip for me. The sister, orphaned when their parents both died as they were growing up, come together in this for a collective finding of self and each other - relationship breakthroughs, deciding to embark on parenthood, living off the grid, crossing into Northern Ireland and the politics that still drives a voltage of divide at literal borders… there’s just so much in this. It’s unassuming, and a quiet read in its rumbling plot and heavy development of character, but its hands down one of my top reads of 2024.

Four Irish sisters, each brilliant and gifted in their respective fields, have spent years apart. But when the eldest vanishes into the remote Irish countryside, they are drawn together once again, in the shadows of past, present, and future…
The four Flattery sisters have lived apart for many years, each the holder of a doctorate and passionately pursuing her own individual path. Olwen, the eldest, is a geologist in Galway; her lectures warn of the ruination of earth’s natural resources. Rhona, the second sister, is a political scientist at Trinity College, Dublin, and an advocate of electoral reform. The third sister, Maeve, is a chef, author, and star of social media, living in London and concerned with food shortages in the wake of Brexit. The youngest, Nell, a philosopher and academic, juggles three university jobs in Connecticut on a work visa without health insurance, whilst dealing with a condition which has left her with no feeling in her feet. All are unmarried: Olwen has a widower partner with two sons; Rhona is a single mother; Maeve has no partner; and Nell is a self-professed celibate uninterested in relationships.

One stormy night, Olwen leaves her life behind, disappearing without trace or explanation of any kind to anyone. After several months of hearing nothing from her, the other three sisters take time out from their careers to reunite in Ireland and try to find her. Their quest opens up old wounds, issues, and resentments stemming from their past, their present, and the terrible shared tragedy which has blighted their lives…

Unusual, thoughtful, and erudite, The Alternatives is a sprawling and densely packed novel encompassing a broad spectrum of themes: environmentalism, displacement, immigration, integration, interconnection, political upheaval, mental health, social care; also fate, free will, nature, and nurture. The author evokes a vivid sense of place and background for each of the sisters; their temperaments, dispositions, professional interests, social circles, and the general minutiae of their lives. Some readers may find the exhaustive detail lavished on each sister’s individual life in the beginning somewhat cumbersome, in the sense that the story does not move forward significantly until the sisters are reunited. However, the comprehensive introductions to each sister and the rumblings in the background of Olwen’s disappearance serve to bring them together slowly but surely, and give us deeper insights into their characters, so that when they are reunited, our knowledge of the sisters heightens the tensions, unresolved issues, and clash of personalities between them.

For the sisters’ reunion, the narrative style changes unexpectedly to the form of a play, with scene-settings and dialogue. This abrupt change works effectively, lending an immediacy and enhanced realism to the sisters’ initial conversations, reactions, and interactions when they are all together again. Following this, the book travels back and forth from play script to prose, rigorous in its descriptive, down-to-earth detail, while skilfully evincing emotions, memories, plans, and possibilities triggered by the reunion and its subsequent events. The consequences of climate change, and the trials and tribulations of the modern world, are constant backdrops to the sisters’ converging stories: landslides, storms, floods, gales, power outages, political unrest, ethical compromises, and corporate threats.

At times, an almost fairy-tale quality pervades the story. The sisters’ search for wisdom is equated to the tale of King Lir’s granddaughter, Sionnan, who sought the Salmon of Knowledge; but the Salmon grew angry and caused its river to overflow, drowning her and turning her into the River Shannon. However, it is the legend of the Children of Lir, one of the Three Sorrows of Ireland in mythology, to which The Alternatives most seems to allude. After the death of their mother, Lir’s four children were turned into swans by their jealous stepmother and were to remain so for 900 years – though the spell did not take away their speech or song, which they used to express their human emotions and lament their sad fate. Like the Children of Lir, the Flattery sisters are marked by family tragedy in their youth, by the loss of the happy home they once shared, and by the sorrows and burdens of the world we must all navigate. Albeit meanderingly, the novel chronicles with poignancy their journeys towards recovery, reflexivity, and learning to cope as well as care. As Nell explains:

“Heidegger believed that care is what makes us human, what defines and delimits the species. We’re borne [sic] of care, it’s an intractable phenomenon of being, our central way of understanding the self. He described two types of care: anxious, burdensome care, stemming from fear and the struggle for survival. And solicitude, which is about lifting up others, being attentive, devotional.”

Didn't finish this, was not at all what I expected from the synopsis. Certainly not bad, but don't feel that we need this in our collection.

The Alternatives follows four sisters whose parents tragically died when they were children leaving the oldest sister, Olwen, as the caretaker. When the sisters are in their 30s living separate career-focused lives, Olwen drops off the grid and her sisters reunite to search the Irish countryside for her. The Flattery sisters are all interesting in their own right and I loved getting to know each of them individually. When their stories eventually weave together, their collective energy is extraordinary. Cerebral, witty, and experimental in form, this timely novel touches on complex sibling dynamics, shared trauma, and navigating anxiety about the future.

Engrossing story that kept me turning the pages. A good book for discussion groups and those looking for a book with issues to discuss, .

I requested The Alternatives because I'm trying to read more Irish fiction, I love stories about sisters, and this author and I have a similar name :)

I think I might not be cerebral enough to appreciate The Entire Book as a work of genius, but Caoilinn Hughes is obviously super brilliant. Maeve's POV especially had me laughing out loud. My favorite parts were Act I and Act II's mini-plays (coolest thing I've read all year). The sisters are all so smart but at times I felt like I was reading a (more feminist, less TERFy) John Galt speech every chapter.

The Alternatives is cohesive, timely, experimental, and honestly silly! I love the girl bossery of it all - it has the spirit of a 90s movie without being fatphobic and centered on the male gaze.

I agree with the other reviewers that this is a challenging novel. It wasn’t so much the structure -the play like interlude, Shades of Shakespeare with the interactions among sisters. I had a difficult time with the stone and geologic analogies along with the philosophic references. It just didn’t seem to hang together.

A well drawn novel about four highly intelligent Irish sisters.
One sister disappears and the other three set out to find her.
This book covers many current themes including ecology, humanity, philosophy, and politics.
I recommend this satisfying novel!

i can honestly say i don't think i've ever read another book quite like this one.

the alternatives weaves together the stories of four irish sisters who have grown apart in their adult lives following the death of their parents. when olwen, the eldest sister, goes missing, the three other sisters come together for the first time in years to find her and figure out what's going on.

even though the premise of this book sounds thriller-esque, this is a pretty quiet story. ultimately, it focuses on how the four flattery sisters embody different types of care for one another, for themselves, and for the world around them. they all are experts in their fields of study-- olwen in earth science, rhona in political science, maeve in cooking, and nell in philosophy-- but even with their intelligence and expertise in communicating in their respective careers and public lives, they struggle to communicate effectively with one another. i found the interpersonal dynamics between each sister so interesting and complex and well-told.

i also really enjoyed the format of this book! i'll admit that it dragged a bit in the first and third parts for me, but the second part is written like a play, and i thought that was such a genius choice for when the characters all were together in the same place for the first time. i also appreciated that we got some time in the first part of the book following each individual sister, because this really helped me understand their motivations and quirks and why they interacted with the other sisters the way they did. the way the story wrapped up in the end (for each sister) was perfect.

i definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys literary fiction, and to readers who prefer to read more understated, character-driven stories.

thank you to the publisher for sending a digital ARC my way via netgalley!

This was a challenging and surprising little novel. While I picked up the book for its the fairytale-esque plot of searching for a missing older sister, I stayed for the philosophical and abstract commentary on aging and climate change. And lest that make it sound too academic, there is so much heart and humor in this book as well. The dynamics and relationships between the sisters have the feeling of real lived history. At times it reminded me of another dark show about Irish sisters-Bad Sisters. While tackling different subject matter, this book similarly tackles essential issues with humor. I highly recommend.

A slow but contemplative and gorgeous novel. Set in Ireland and revolving around 3 sisters looking for their 4th sister who has gone off the grid, I loved the relationships shown, the familial love between sisters, and the comments on climate change. A beautiful book!

Delightful and challenging, this is a fine new novel from a writer who seems both brainy and someone you’d like to know. The story of the four sisters, interwoven with history and future speculation, can be wordy and abstract at times, but it’s also tremendous fun, flirty, humane and constantly surprising. There’s a lot to unpack, and nothing finally seems certain, but that’s in keeping with the questions the book is posing about some essential dilemmas. I’ll be recommending this one.