The Wardrobe Department

AN IRISH TIMES DEBUT AUTHOR TO LOOK OUT FOR 2025
'Beautifully written' LOUISE KENNEDY
'Full of verve and wit and humanity' MARY COSTELLO
'Clever and original' TLS
'A tremendous new talent' KEVIN BARRY
Mairéad works tirelessly in a run-down West End theatre's wardrobe department - mending shoes, fixing broken zips and even handwashing underwear. She must also sidestep groping hands backstage and withstand the relentless bullying of the show's producer.
The job was meant to be the first step towards the life Mairéad has always wanted, and yet half of her remains back home in Ireland, along with everything she abandoned there.
A reckoning with the past is coming and, with it, the need to forge a new present - one stitch at a time.

Elaine Garvey is from Co. Sligo, Ireland. She completed an M.Phil. in Creative Writing in Trinity College, Dublin in 2000. Her short stories have been published in the Dublin Review and Winter Papers. She has worked as a programme co-ordinator at the Stinging Fly, was awarded an agility grant for her writing and has recently been selected as a participant on a basic income scheme for artists by the Irish Department of Arts. The Wardrobe Department is her first novel.