a b Hunt, Elle (12 March 2017). "Novelist Marian Keyes reveals fight against constant 'suicidal impulses' ". The Guardian . Retrieved 30 September 2017. The novel is a rare blend of genres, a richly enjoyable satire and an inspirational tale of one woman's triumph over despair Daily Telegraph When I’d arrived in Ireland eight weeks earlier, I couldn’t climb the stairs, because of my dislocated kneecap, so my parents had moved a bed downstairs into the Good Front Room.

Anybody Out There? - Wikipedia

Keyes became known for her novels Watermelon, Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, Rachel's Holiday, Last Chance Saloon, Anybody Out There, and This Charming Man, which, although written in a light and humorous style, cover themes including alcoholism, depression, addiction, cancer, bereavement, and domestic violence. [1] More than 35 million copies of her novels have been sold, and her works have been translated into 33 languages. [2] Her writing has won both the Irish Popular Fiction Book and the Popular Non-Fiction Book of the Year, each on one occasion, at the Irish Book Awards. a b c Ingle, Róisín (9 September 2017). "Marian Keyes: 'There's an awful lot of riding in my book' ". The Irish Times . Retrieved 20 October 2017. Steele, Francesca (31 January 2020). "Marian Keyes: the best-selling author on diets, sexism and being inspired by Gen Z: The popular writer's new book follows the story of a large, chaotic family with similarities to her own" . Retrieved 31 January 2020. Keyes comes from a big family... and enjoys writing about life inside a large nest. When I’d arrived in Ireland eight weeks earlier, I couldn’t climb the stairs because of my dislocated kneecap, so my parents had moved a bed downstairs into the Good Front Room.Please yourself,’ Helen said, then gazed through the binoculars and murmured, ‘Good Christ, would you look at that!’ Then, ‘Buh-loody hell ! Ding-dong! What are they trying to do? A Jolly Girl tonsil ectomy?’ Angela Kilfeather is the most exotic creature that ever came out of our road. Well, that’s not really true – my family is far more dramatic what with broken marriages and suicide attempts and drug addiction and Helen, but Mum uses Angela Kilfeather as the gold standard: bad and all as her daughters are, at least they’re not lesbians who French-kiss their girlfriends beside suburban leylandii. (Helen once worked with an Indian man who mistranslated ‘gays’ as ‘Jolly Boys’. It caught on so much that nearly everyone I know – including all my gay friends – now refers to gay men as ‘Jolly Boys’. And always said in an Indian accent. The logical conclusion is that lesbians are ‘Jolly Girls’, also said in an Indian accent.) Searingly insightful, Keyes finds lightness in the darkest and most violent of emotions' Independent Now, having told you how funny Marian Keyes books are, the Walsh Dynasty in particular, you should also know that not many books make me cry. I can count them on the fingers of one hand Charlotte's Web, The Green Mile, Pride and Prejudice and Anybody Out There? See? I didn't even use thumbs. Anybody Out There? made my throat ache with the upsweep of the tale, the seamless flow of prose and the joy of a satisfying and judicious ending.

Anybody Out There – Marian Keyes | thebookwormery Anybody Out There – Marian Keyes | thebookwormery

Keyes' stories usually revolve around a strong female character who overcomes numerous obstacles to achieve lasting happiness. Regarding her decision to use an optimistic tone and hopeful ending, Keyes has said: "I'm very bleak, really melancholic. But I've always used humour as a survival mechanism. I write for me and I need to feel hopeful about the human condition. So no way I'm going to write a downbeat ending. And it isn't entirely ludicrous to suggest that sometimes things might work out for the best." [11] But when my bed was installed in the GFR there was nowhere for the other fixtures – tasselled couches, tasselled armchairs – to go. The room now looked like one of those discount furniture stores where millions of couches are squashed in together, so that you almost have to clamber over them like boulders along the seafront. Anna tries her best to get on with things, even being chosen to head up a new account at work but when she receives a letter from Aidan’s ex-girlfriend, Janie, containing a picture of a young boy who is obviously Aidan’s son, she completely loses it and tries to find someone to have sex with to take her anger out on Aidan, thinking Aidan must have cheated on her with Janie. On reading the letter she realises that actually Janie became pregnant before Aidan and her were exclusive.

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The sensible woman would not open this. The sensible woman would throw it in the bin and walk away. But apart from a short period between the ages of twenty-nine and thirty, when had I ever been sensible? During her appearance on Desert Island Discs in March 2017, Keyes told the host that "[by] conditioning women to think that what they find empowering or valuable is worth less than what men consider to be worthwhile, women are prevented from reaching for parity and the gender gap in power and money between men and women is kept in the favour of men". [11]

Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes | Waterstones

It will break your heart and nourish your soul...No one can evoke deep feeling with such a light touch as Marian Keyes Nigella Lawson I love Mammy Walsh in this one too, her battle with the woman who forces her dog to do it’s business at their gate and I love how desperate she is to be involved in Helen’s private investigator business. I also love her interfering in Rachel’s wedding, I can totally understand why Anna said she left her to complete organise the food for her wedding to Aidan! Each instalment in the Walsh family saga makes me long for Mammy Walsh to have her own book. It would be awesome! Yes, I got him. Ding-dong! Right, I’m off to bed.’ Instead she stretched out on one of the many couches. ‘The man spotted me in the hedge, taking his picture.’ Struggling to get on with her life without Aidan and desperate to hear from him at least one last time, Anna neglects her family and friends, making excuses not to see her sister, Rachel, and struggling to keep up with the demands of her job.

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a b Fox-Leonard, Boudicca (9 September 2017). "Marian Keyes: 'As a child I was scared I would become an alcoholic' ". The Telegraph . Retrieved 20 October 2017.

Anybody Out There - Marian Keyes

After several career changes, Helen – and I’m not making this up, I wish I was – is a private investigator. Mind you, it sounds far more dangerous and exciting than it is. She mostly does white-collar crime and ‘domestics’ – where she has to get proof of men having affairs. I would find it terribly depressing but she says it doesn’t bother her because she’s always known that men are total scumbags. In 2021 and 2022, Keyes joined Tara Flynn in a series for BBC Radio 4 called 'Now You're Asking', in which they discussed problems sent in by listeners (they called them 'askers'). Desperate to hang on to Aidan in any way she can and concerned about how he will feel about being dead, Anna starts to attend a spiritual group, where she keeps getting messages from a young blonde boy who’s name begins with a J. Initially she thinks this is her nephew, JJ, but he’s not dead and she can’t figure out why she would be getting messages about him. She spends a lot of time sitting in wet hedges with a long-range lens, trying to get photographic evidence of the adulterers leaving their love nest. She could stay in her nice, warm, dry car but then she tends to fall asleep and miss her mark.

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Keyes has written frankly about her clinical depression, which left her unable to sleep, read, write, or talk. After a long hiatus due to severe depression, a food title, Saved by Cake, was published in February 2012. [8] Will make you laugh and make you cry, but will also reveal the truth of who you really are' Louise O'Neill She tried to march briskly, like nurses she’d seen on hospital dramas, but there was so much furniture in the room that instead she had to wrestle her way toward me. a b c "BBC One - imagine..., 2022, Marian Keyes: My (not so) Perfect Life". BBC . Retrieved 8 February 2022. Dear Jesus,” a voice said. It was my sister Helen, home from a night’s work. She stood in the doorway of the sitting room, looked around at all the tassels, and asked, “How can you stand it?”