And the winner is…
After months of careful judging and lots of reading by our Prima audience and publishing experts, we’re proud to announce Eithne Shortall is one of the winners of Hearst Big Book awards 2018 for Grace After Henry!
The 32-year-old author from Dublin was chosen from a shortlist of 36 other incredible titles to take first place in the Prima Page Turner category. Ella Dove met Eithne to find out the story behind this captivating book.
How does it feel to be our Big Book winner? I’m absolutely thrilled. When I looked through the shortlist, I remember thinking, ‘They’re all proper authors,’ so to even be counted among them is fantastic. I didn’t expect it at all. I’m also the only Irish author on the list, which makes winning even more special.
Tell us about your book and where you got the inspiration to write it? The book starts when Grace is waiting at a house viewing for Henry but very sadly, he's in an accident on the way and dies. Struggling with grief, she starts to see a man called Andy – who is the spitting image of Henry – everywhere she goes and she becomes captivated by him. It's a book that examines the nature of love and loss – does loving Andy mean letting go of Henry for good? The idea first came into my head when I was househunting in Dublin. My boyfriend and I had a viewing booked, but he was running a few minutes late. Waiting outside for him, I suddenly started catastrophising, wondering what I would do if he never turned up. It made me realise the fragility of relationships, that at any moment our lives can change without warning. Thankfully, he arrived shortly afterwards, but that sense of unease stayed with me.
Have you always wanted to be an author? I’ve always wanted to write, and I wrote poems as a child. In fact, the first money I ever got for writing was winning £20 for a poem about St Patrick’s Day that I sent in to a magazine my granny used to get. I went on to become a journalist, but I always said I’d write a novel one day. In 2017, it finally happened after I took some time out of my job to write my first book, Love In Row 27. Grace After Henry followed a year later – and I’m currently writing my third.
Do you have a writing routine?
I try to write every day. On weekdays, I write first thing in the morning and
I’ll usually do a half day at the weekends, but if I’m close to a deadline I’ll write all weekend and every evening, too, squeezing it in to any spare time I can find.
‘I always said I’d write a novel one day’
Where do you like to write?
My parents live in the middle of nowhere in the west of Ireland, and I wrote a lot of Grace After Henry there. I also love writing in my local cafe in Dublin. The atmosphere is great and they have excellent scones – promising myself one of those is the only way I can force myself out of bed early. I often bribe myself with extra cream! Grace After Henry (Corvus) is out now