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Prestige Drama
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Overview
"S amas O'Reilly has created a vast mosaic of voices, each sparkling with heartache and wit. I'm in love with every character in this novel, and like most prestige dramas, it ended far too soon." --Caroline O'Donoghue, author of The Rachel Incident A dazzling novel about a community where an upcoming film production brings their past into sharp focus--and nobody's version is the same. In Derry, the locals are already in a twist about the arrival of Hollywood actress Monica Logue to research her role for a show about the Troubles--and then she goes missing. Everyone has a story to tell--about Monica's possible whereabouts, and about the historic events that brought her here in the first place: the show's screenwriter, desperate for this last shot at success; the grieving mother whose story he's adapting; the ex-IRA member who knows the price of survival; the local psychic who's seen too much ... Prestige Drama brings to life a chorus of characters as they locate themselves in Monica's disappearance, and in the truth about their own history. From the author of the acclaimed memoir Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?, Prestige Drama is heartbreaking, hilarious, and profound, an indelible portrait of a community both obsessed with its past, and desperate to forget it.
Details
- ISBN-13: 9781538778210
- ISBN-10: 1538778211
- Publisher: Cardinal
- Publish Date: May 2026
- Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.6 pounds
- Page Count: 192
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“To remember everything is a form of madness . . . confusion is not an ignoble condition.” This epigraph, from Brian Friel’s Translations, could not be better suited to Séamas O’Reilly’s Prestige Drama, a novel that brings intentional nuance to the uncertainty and conflict surrounding how best to remember the past.
Such is the debate at hand in Derry, Northern Ireland, where gossip swells when it’s announced that a new television series will be filmed in the city. Coming soon: Dead City, a work of historical fiction capturing life during the “troubles” of the 1970s, and starring the uberfamous American actress Monica Logue. Will the series represent Derry accurately? Will it support the local economy? Will local actors get minor parts, major parts or no roles at all? A contentious, skeptical discourse erupts—until, suddenly, the news about Dead City is eclipsed by the discovery that Monica is missing.
Chapters narrated by Diarmuid Walsh, Dead City’s screenwriter and the person believed to be the last to see Monica before she disappeared, alternate with chapters each told from the point of a view of a different Derry resident. Neighborhood figures both young and old share perspectives on the violence of the troubles and their aftermath that reveal widely disparate notions about how to commemorate, grieve and move forward after collective trauma. O’Reilly, author of the memoir Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?, crafts distinct character voices with incredible skill and a consistently playful and captivating stream-of-consciousness style. The effect is that of being spoken to, even confided in, by these characters; it’s truly immersive.
Prestige Drama is the kind of book that begs for a reread to better piece together how the overlapping storylines subtly build after each new character is introduced. Yet despite the suspense created by the question of Monica’s disappearance, the puzzle of how different perspectives connect comes second to stitching together portraits of individuals into a picture of the collective. With humor, honesty and compassion, O’Reilly takes the pulse of a community in recovery, and invites us to feel it, too.
“To remember everything is a form of madness . . . confusion is not an ignoble condition.” This epigraph, from Brian Friel’s Translations, could not be better suited to Séamas O’Reilly’s Prestige Drama, a novel that brings intentional nuance to the uncertainty and conflict surrounding how best to remember the past.
Such is the debate at hand in Derry, Northern Ireland, where gossip swells when it’s announced that a new television series will be filmed in the city. Coming soon: Dead City, a work of historical fiction capturing life during the “troubles” of the 1970s, and starring the uberfamous American actress Monica Logue. Will the series represent Derry accurately? Will it support the local economy? Will local actors get minor parts, major parts or no roles at all? A contentious, skeptical discourse erupts—until, suddenly, the news about Dead City is eclipsed by the discovery that Monica is missing.
Chapters narrated by Diarmuid Walsh, Dead City’s screenwriter and the person believed to be the last to see Monica before she disappeared, alternate with chapters each told from the point of a view of a different Derry resident. Neighborhood figures both young and old share perspectives on the violence of the troubles and their aftermath that reveal widely disparate notions about how to commemorate, grieve and move forward after collective trauma. O’Reilly, author of the memoir Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?, crafts distinct character voices with incredible skill and a consistently playful and captivating stream-of-consciousness style. The effect is that of being spoken to, even confided in, by these characters; it’s truly immersive.
Prestige Drama is the kind of book that begs for a reread to better piece together how the overlapping storylines subtly build after each new character is introduced. Yet despite the suspense created by the question of Monica’s disappearance, the puzzle of how different perspectives connect comes second to stitching together portraits of individuals into a picture of the collective. With humor, honesty and compassion, O’Reilly takes the pulse of a community in recovery, and invites us to feel it, too.