An essential debut novel of modern Belfast that sings a tender hymn to messy love, quiet grief, and the hangovers in between.

Everyone Erin knows feels like an acquaintance. Back in Belfast after abruptly leaving graduate school, she numbly teeters through the aftermath of losing her best friend to an accident she doesn’t want to talk about. But it’s easy to get into a rhythm in the Lazy City; a simple housekeeping job provides refuge, as do evenings at a cocktail lounge where her friend tends bar and she drinks for free.

In quick succession, she meets an American man who is looking to get lost, and falls back in with the local man who both comforts and confounds her. Suddenly, she finds herself wandering into churches, where, musing on these relationships—and her equally complicated relationship to faith—she gingerly confronts her grief.

Written with mordant wit and surprising sympathy, Lazy City announces Rachel Connolly as an uncannily perceptive new voice for a city that “shows all its history, all its personality, all the time.”

About the Author: Rachel Connolly is a London-based writer from Belfast. She has written for the New York Times Magazine, Guardian, Baffler, Financial Times, and many other publications.