CARRIE KABAK
When their bold and brassy mother, Vera Coffey, disappears after declaring she was born into Ireland’s Traveller community, a traditionally nomadic ethnic minority, Shibby and her twin sister Dorah are left behind in a settled family already cracking at the seams. Under the iron rule of their rigidly prejudiced grandmother, the girls grow up on opposite tracks: Dorah, brave and arrogant; Shibby, bruised and unmoored.
As Shibby stumbles into adulthood, she’s drawn to men who either abuse or discard her. Though she finds stability in the fast-paced chaos of a restaurant kitchen, a question continues to gnaw: is her future in the rooted life of the settled, or on the open road to God only knows where?
With the steadfast support of a chosen few—Alice Duffy, housekeeper turned surrogate mother; Moochie de Barra, an affectionate stand-in for an emotionally absent father; and Kitty Dooley, who embodies the fierce pride and harsh realities of Traveller life—Shibby begins to confront hard truths about cultural identity, family, and what she desperately needs to find where she truly belongs.
In the tradition of Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, and Donal Ryan’s The Queen of Dirt Island, Shibby Magee is a warm yet incisive Irish tragicomedy about a woman shaped by childhood abandonment and social prejudice as she struggles toward dignity, love, and self-possession.
Full of texture and lyrical rhythm, Shibby Magee traces how the rupture of early abandonment echoes from childhood into midlife, revealing what endures, what shifts, and how patterns repeat until they are finally broken.
"Carrie Kabak follows the indelible, indefatigable Shibby Magee during two crucial years in her life, one in girlhood and then another at midlife womanhood, as she struggles against prejudice, cruelty, and abandonment in her search to find her true place in an increasingly confounding world, be it in a bustling restaurant or on the road as an Irish Traveller—in an extraordinary, wily community I’d never heard of before and was delighted to encounter. Warm, wise, with dashes of wit, Kabak’s novel is just magnificent."
—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You, With or Without You, and Days of Wonder
"In this captivating and insightful novel, Carrie Kabak introduces the unforgettable Shibby Magee, who navigates adulthood in search of love and stability while grappling with the enduring shadows of childhood abandonment. Filled with multi-dimensional characters and evocative imagery, this is a heartfelt and poignant story that lingers long after the final page."
—Holly Kennedy, Edgar Award Nominee and Giller Prize Longlisted author of The Sideways Life of Denny Voss